With the launch of the first ever World Cities Day on October 31, 2014, The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has designated the month of October as Urban October.
Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat
This is coming on the heels of two important milestones on the urban calendar, which coincide in the same month. On the first Monday of the month, October 6, the world will be commemorating this year’s edition of the yearly World Habitat Day. Uniquely, this year’s event will be followed by the celebration of the pioneer World Cities Day on the last day of the month, October 31. The series of celebrations, events and activities taking place in this context are all grouped together under the umbrella of Urban October.
Urban October, through the several initiatives on advocacy, outreach and communications that UN-Habitat promotes and convenes that month, will therefore present a unique platform for governments and partners to organise and promote actions and activities on sustainable urban development. Urban October is a month for raising interest on urban challenges and opportunities to the media and communications networks. It is the month for stimulating debates and moving forward commitments.
The theme for World Habitat Day (WHD) 2014 on Monday, 6 October 2014, is ‘Voices from Slums’. World Habitat Day 2014 campaigns to recognise life in slums and gives voices to slum dwellers for improving quality of living conditions in existing slums, as well as highlights the efforts done with the MDGs process. Governments, NGOs, private sector, academic and other institutions are encouraged to place current and past slum dwellers as protagonists of World Habitat Day 2014. Webstories, videos, photos, interviews and other stories will feed the campaign’s contents on social media, websites, media and other supports.
Urban Thinkers Campus will take place from 15 to 18 October 2014 in Caserta, Italy. The Campus is built on the outcomes of the deliberations of the Sixth and Seventh session of the World Urban Forum organised by UN-Habitat in Naples, Italy in 2012 and in Medellin, Colombia in April 2014. One month after the first Preparatory Committee for the Habitat III Conference, the Campus aims to gather urban thinkers and stakeholders to debate ‘The City We Need’, initiated by the World Urban Campaign.
World Cities Day (WCD) 2014, which will be commemorated on Friday, 31 October 2014, will be celebrated under the theme ‘Leading Urban Transformations’. WCD is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and challenges in urbanization and contribute to urban sustainable development around the world. The city of Shanghai, China will host the main celebration of World Cities Day while there will be local events worldwide.
Efforts to evolve a comprehensive but inclusive urban agenda for Nigeria will move into top gear in the federal capital Abuja next month, with the hosting of the country’s First National Urban Forum. The event is being held as part of activities commemorating World Habitat Day 2014.
Yari Kabir, National Programme Manager, Urban Development and Advocacy, UN-Habitat Programme Support Office (HAPSO) in Nigeria
The World Habitat Day is commemorated on the first Monday in October each year, in line with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 40/20A of 17th December, 1985. It is set apart for reflection on the state of cities and an assessment of progress made in efforts to ensure sustainable urbanisation and adequate shelter for all. This year’s commemoration at the federal level will however hold in Abuja on the 13th-14th October, as the first Monday coincides with a designated major public holiday.
The hosting of National Urban Forums at country level was conceived by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), as a critical part of the preparatory process for the forthcoming third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), scheduled to take place in 2016. The Habitat III Conference is being convened as directed by United Nations General Assembly in line with the bi-decennial cycle that saw the hosting of Habitat I in Vancouver, Canada in 1976 and, Habitat II in Istanbul Turkey in 1996.
The Habitat III summit will reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable urbanization, focus on the implementation of a “New Urban Agenda” and, build on the Habitat Agenda adopted during Habitat II in Istanbul in 1996. Already, Nigeria is supporting the preparatory process at the continental level to the tune of $3 million, through the Strengthening Partnerships for a New Africa Urban Agenda project.
Nigeria’s First National Urban Forum, which will be the highpoint of the 2014 World Habitat Day commemoration, is bringing together all key stakeholders in the housing and urban development sector to deliberate on and validate the work of consultants commissioned for the preparation of a National Habitat Report, among other activities.
The summit is coming on the heels of the inauguration of Nigeria’s National Habitat Committee by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Akon Eyakenyi, on 20th February, 2014 in Abuja.
The theme for World Habitat Day (WHD) 2014 is ‘Voices from Slums,’ which campaigns to recognise life in slums and gives voices to slum dwellers for improving quality of living conditions in existing informal settlements, as well as highlights the efforts made towards the MDGs process.
Five distinguished individuals and a corporate body are to be awarded the 2014 Right Livelihood Honorary Award, which honours courageous and effective work for human rights, freedom of the press, civil liberties and combatting climate change.
The awardees are: Americans Bill McKibben and Edward Snowden, Briton Alan Rusbridger, Pakistani Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando from Hong Kong SAR and Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) of China.
Bill McKibben. Photo: Nancie Battaglia
Author, educator, environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org, McKibben is being decorated“for mobilising growing popular support in the USA and around the world for strong action to counter the threat of global climate change”.
He says: “This is a great honor but clearly it belongs mostly to the people who make up 350.org – it’s them, but above all the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in 191 countries, who have built the first global grassroots movement to deal with the largest crisis civilization has ever faced.” He added that the prize money would fund the work of 350.org and its partner organisations. Some money would be sent immediately to the Pacific Island activists who will blockade Australian coal ports in their traditional canoes next month.
“This recognition of our efforts comes at a perfect moment after the remarkable success of the People’s Climate March and as we start the strongest push yet against the fossil fuel industry and the politicians it has purchased.”
Snowden, the computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA), impressed the jury “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”.
Snowden’s word: “Being named a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award for my work in revealing the global system of mass surveillance that is monitoring all of us in secret without the consent of the public is a vindication, I think, not just for myself but for everyone who came before me to raise awareness about these issues. Any contribution that I have made has been a result of the efforts of so many other people working in journalism, in activism, in human rights community, the civil liberties community, the technical communities, who recognised long before I did what was coming and why it was so important to stop it.
“Now, initially I thought I would be setting out to do this alone and that the attacks against me would isolate me, but I am surrounded by more people than I ever have been. People from countries around the world, who speak many different languages, but who recognise that the meaning of resisting the violations of our freedoms that we see today is not that we have something to hide, but that we have something to protect – our rights. Because the list of freedoms that any society enjoys is always equal to those that we are ready to defend. On behalf of so many around the world, who have risked their lives and their freedom to resist unlawful and disproportional mass surveillance, I would like to thank you.”
Journalist and the editor of The Guardian of London, Rusbridger, bagged the award “for building a global media organisation dedicated to responsible journalism in the public interest, undaunted by the challenges of exposing corporate and government malpractices”.
Rusbridger’s reaction: “I am honoured to receive the Right Livelihood Award for the journalism of the Guardian, for the kind of journalism that we represent: journalism in the public interest, open journalism that is available to all and journalism that is seeking to remold and reinterpret journalism for the 21st century. I am also delighted that Edward Snowden has won an award, because I think he was a whistleblower who took considerable risks with his own personal freedom in order to tell society about things that people needed to know. And I think the combination of Edward Snowden and The Guardian show the value of journalism, what it can do, and robust journalistic institutions and how they can tell stories and defend them.”
Edward Snowden. Photo: The Guardian
Leading Pakistani lawyer, human rights activist and advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Jahangir, becomes the first Pakistani to be so decorated. She is being honoured “for defending, protecting and promoting human rights in Pakistan and more widely, often in very difficult and complex situations and at great personal risk”.
She submits: “This Award is not just for me but also for several people in our country who do human rights work. It is an encouragement for the younger generation to follow in the footsteps of those activists who came before them, who fought against oppression and for human dignity. Pakistan has often been portrayed in a negative way, and I am aware of its weaknesses. But it also has a brighter side, and that is the story of those who have struggled against oppressive regimes, and stood up for women’s rights, and for children, under extremely difficult circumstances.”
Human rights defender, Fernando, along with the AHRC, bagged the Right Livelihood Award “for his tireless and outstanding work to support and document the implementation of human rights in Asia”.
In a reaction, Fernando calls for a change at policy levels in strategies of poverty alleviation. Missing from poverty alleviation discourse, usually “is the cost that the poor have to pay, as a result of the absence of protection. (…) This absence is the non-existence of a public justice system capable of protecting the poor from the onslaught of predators in society.”
Besides funding legal support for Snowden, the Foundation announces that Jahangir, Fernando and AHRC will share the cash award of Swedish Kroner 1.5 million.
The 2014 Right Livelihood Awards were to be announced at the Swedish Foreign Office pressroom today (September 25), where the announcement has been taking place since 1995. But the Foreign Office has decided to cancel the press conference this year. However, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation has gone ahead to publish the news.
Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, said: “This year’s Right Livelihood Laureates are stemming the tide of the most dangerous global trends. With this year’s Awards, we want to send a message of urgent warning that these trends – illegal mass surveillance of ordinary citizens, the violation of human and civil rights, violent manifestations of religious fundamentalism, and the decline of the planet’s life-supporting systems – are very much upon us already. If they are allowed to continue, and reinforce each other, they have the power to undermine the basis of civilised societies.
“But the Laureates also demonstrate that the choice is entirely in our hands: by courageous acts of civil disobedience in the public interest, through principled and undeterred journalism, by upholding the rule of law and documenting each violation of it, and by building social movements to resist the destruction of our natural environment, we can turn the tide and build our common future on the principles of freedom, justice, and respect for the Earth.”
The Awards will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament on December 1, 2014, hosted by the Society for the Right Livelihood Award in the Swedish Parliament.
Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are often referred to as ‘Alternative Nobel Prizes’. They were introduced “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.
Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German professional philatelist, sold his business to provide the original funding. Since then, the Awards have been financed by individual donors. This year, there were 120 proposals from 53 countries. Presently, there are 158 Right Livelihood Award Laureates from 65 countries.
The Rockefeller Foundation on Wednesday in New York signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union Commission to promote increased cooperation between the two institutions in their efforts towards Africa’s progress.
H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union Chairperson (left) and Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation (right), flanked by AUC and the Rockefeller Foundation staff.
The signing took place under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly, when H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson, presented the African Union agenda 2063.
Popularly themed ‘The Africa We Want’, the AUC Agenda 2063 encapsulates the voice of Africa’s people and their aspirations for the next 50 years. It emphasizes inclusive growth, integration, community participation and good governance among many other ideals.
“The African Union Commission is an important partner of the Rockefeller Foundation. We have both worked alongside individuals and organisations across Africa for decades to support progress in many sectors. This agreement amplifies our shared vision for a strong, vibrant Africa,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Among the areas of greater collaboration for the two entities are Africa’s health, livelihoods, youth employment, food security, urbanisation and resilience.
Last year the AUC celebrated 50 years since the inception of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the AUC’s parent body, as the Rockefeller Foundation marked 100 years in philanthropy, with both organizations celebrating milestones in improving the lives of Africa’s people.
The agreement also comes as AUC announced 2014 the year of Agriculture and Food Security, an opportune time to strengthen ties with the Foundation, which currently has two Africa-wide initiatives focusing on reduction of food waste and spoilage, and securing farmers’ livelihoods.
Together, the Foundation and the AUC already have a number of initiatives in Africa that are aimed at improving the lives of poor and vulnerable people; one is the African Risk Capacity (ARC), a pan-African weather insurance scheme designed to help AUC member states withstand and recover from natural disasters. ARC currently has a 24 country membership, giving them access to a financial risk pool that uses advanced satellite weather surveillance and software which estimates and disburses immediate funds to these countries when hit by hazards like severe drought.
For over a century, the Rockefeller Foundation promoted the well-being of humanity throughout the world, a mission it pursues through advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity on one hand; and, on the other, building resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses.
Climate Action Network (CAN) (a global network of over 900 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels) and Global Call for Climate Action (GCCA) (an international network of diverse non-profit organisations working to mobilise civil society and galvanise public opinion in support of climate action), in a joint comment on the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Summit in New York City, stress that the forum showed a lot of positive signals ahead of Paris 2015
The UNSG’s Climate Summit in New York on Tuesday contributed to the growing sense that the fossil fuel era is ending and delivered some momentum towards an international climate agreement to be signed in Paris next year.
A small but growing number of countries joined UNSG Ban Ki-moon and actor Leonardo di Caprio to confirm the need to speed up the switch from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy, such as Samoa, Tuvalu, Costa Rica and Denmark. Other countries, like Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Ethiopia and Iceland pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050.
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General
While the Summit produced positive signals and some money on the table for climate action, many governments came to New York today to merely restate what they are already doing. As the almost 700,000 people who joined the Peoples Climate marches over the weekend know, what they are already doing is not nearly enough.
“Leaders in New York, including US President Barack Obama, acknowledged they can no longer act against the will of the people. And on the weekend, the will of the people was made profoundly clear. Mums and dads, people of faith, progressive business leaders, union members and youth – all are already taking action in massive numbers, and they expect Heads of Government to join them and do more, now,” Climate Action Network director Wael Hmaidan said.
“Government leaders have the choice to lead the orderly transformation of our societies or to end up on the wrong side of history.”
China should be commended for signaling its intention to peak emissions as soon as possible. Such moves along with more ambitious actions by the US – which President Obama hinted at – could accelerate negotiations towards the global climate agreement due next year. We now need them to translate their positive rhetoric into concrete commitments – carbon cuts and climate finance for the world’s vulnerable nations.
Christian Aid’s Senior Climate Change Advisor Mohamed Adow said, “Those countries that are hawking old goods today have to go back to their capitals with a renewed determination to get their countries on the right path with the words of the Marshall Islands’, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner ringing in their ears, who said in the opening ceremony on behalf of civil society: ‘We deserve to not just survive. We deserve to thrive’.”
A journalist and two media workers were killed on September 16 while covering an Ebola education campaign in Guinea’s south-eastern forested region, according to news reports and local journalists.
Guinean government spokesman, Damantang Albert Camara
The bodies of Facély Camara, a journalist with the privately owned radio Liberté FM at N’Zérékoré, and Molou Chérif and Sidiki Sidibé, a technician and a technician intern, respectively, with the community station Radio Rurale de N’Zérékoré, were found alongside five other victims in a septic tank in Wome, a village near Guinea’s south-eastern N’Zérékoré region where the first cases of Ebola were documented in March, according to news reports.
“It is tragic that those who could provide help or report on the needs of communities were the ones targeted. Fear and misinformation, like the virus, can be deadly,” said Peter Nkanga, CPJ West Africa Representative. “The authorities must carry out a full and thorough investigation and bring those responsible to justice. Anything less could encourage further such attacks.”
In a statement, government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said that the victims, including local administrators, medical officers, and a preacher, were part of a delegation that had been visiting towns and villages as part of a public education program about the disease. Residents began throwing stones at the group and, while some managed to hide and escape, others were caught and had their throats slit, Camara told Reuters in an interview.
Radio Rurale editor Christophe Millimono, who was part of the delegation and managed to escape, told CPJ he couldn’t understand the motive because the group had been well received before they were suddenly attacked. Many villagers have accused health workers of spreading Ebola, the BBC reported.
Guinea authorities have already arrested six suspects, and promised that the investigation into the attack would bring all those responsible to justice, according to news reports.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), tells the UN Climate Summit in New York City that there is abundant evidence that the climate is changing, even as he insists that man is responsible for such actions
Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
I am privileged to be here to present a summary of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report. The report, compiled by hundreds of scientists, is the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever undertaken.
Three key messages have emerged from the report:
One: Human influence on the climate system is clear – and clearly growing.
Two: We must act quickly and decisively if we want to avoid increasingly destructive outcomes.
Three: We have the means to limit climate change and build a better future.
Let me address each of these points. We have abundant evidence that we are changing our climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.
Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have increased to levels unprecedented in the past 800,000 years.
Our time to take action is running out. If we want a chance to limit the global rise in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, our emissions should peak by 2020. If we carry on business as usual, our opportunity to remain below the 2-degree limit will slip away well before the middle of the century.
Moreover, the longer we wait the higher the risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts.
Food and water shortages.
Increased poverty.
Forced migrations that could increase the risk of violent conflict.
Extreme droughts and floods.
The collapse of ice sheets that flood our coastal cities.
And a steady rise in our death toll, especially among the world’s poorest. How on Earth can we leave our children with a world like this? I’m not sure I could stand before you if the threats of climate change had no solutions. But they do.
We already have the means to build a better, more sustainable world. The solutions are many and allow for continued economic development. While some technologies need additional development, many are already available.
Renewable energy is a real option. Half of the world’s new electricity generating capacity in 2012 came from renewables.
We also have tremendous opportunities to improve energy efficiency. And we can further reduce emissions by stopping deforestation.
We are told that limiting climate change will be too expensive. It will not. But wait until you get the bill for inaction. There are costs of taking action – but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction.
It comes down to a matter of choice. We can continue along our existing path and face dire consequences. Or we can listen to the voice of science, and resolve to act before it’s too late. That’s our choice.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will support developing countries with over $3 billion for financing actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change over the next four years.
The newly completed Sixth Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund, together with expected funding from its climate adaptation funds, will enable the GEF to make $3 billion available for climate finance in the next four years, with an expected $30 billion being leveraged from other sources.
“We urgently need strong action on climate change,” said Dr Naoko Ishii, CEO of GEF. “The GEF is proactively seeking to produce the maximum impact from our investments, working together with other stakeholders to achieve the change that the world needs”.
The GEF supports climate change initiatives in countries across a broad spectrum of action areas. A total of $910 million has been allocated to individual countries to support national climate change mitigation policies and strategies, enhance renewable energy supply, increase energy efficiency, including sustainable transport and urban design, expand climate smart agriculture, and work to reduce short-lived climate forcers. The GEF has also allocated $225 million to support UNFCCC-related reporting and assessments, including Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, and to help integrate their findings into national policy planning and implementation.
In addition, as leading global financier of climate change adaptation, the GEF expects to program up to $1.2 billion towards enhanced resilience, adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The GEF has already transferred $314 million to 53 countries to strengthen the hydro-meteorological and climate information services, allowing governments, private enterprises, civil society and individuals to integrate climate change risks and adaptation into their decision-making processes. The GEF and its partners are also preparing regional programs that will deploy ecosystem-based adaptation measures to enhance resilience in cities in at least nine countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific region.
In an effort to pilot innovative approaches, in the next four years the GEF will provide dedicated financing for three high-impact integrated programs. Through the Sustainable Cities program $100 million will be dedicated to help mayors and other municipal leaders make cities more sustainable, cleaner, more efficient, resilient, and prosperous, generating global environmental benefits through local action.
“There is no better entry point to address the world’s major drivers of environmental degradation than cities and urbanisation”, said Ishii. “With this programme we aim to create a global platform that can support Mayors and city managers to develop and execute integrated plans that help lower cities’ environmental foot print and increase their resilience. Importantly, the programme will also facilitate learning and sharing of effective solutions among cities around the world.”
Ishii also noted two other new GEF programmes, including $110 million to improve food security, strengthen resilience and enhance carbon sequestration in sub-Saharan Africa, and $45 million to eliminate deforestation from commodity supply chains by harnessing the growing public and private sector interest in adopting more sustainable practices to produce commodities such as palm oil, soy and beef.
The GEF helps to transform policy, strengthen institutional capacity, build multi-stakeholder alliances, and de-risks partner investments, as well as explore synergies across its many lines of climate-related financing. The GEF plays a key role in demonstrating innovative approaches and instruments that can be scaled up by other players, including the Green Climate Fund as it becomes operational, moving towards a constructive negotiations outcome in 2015.
An innovative public-private partnership of multinationals, governments, civil society and indigenous peoples today pledged to cut the loss of forests in half by 2020 and end it a decade later in 2030 – a move that will eliminate the emission of between 4.5 and 8.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. That is equivalent to removing the carbon emissions produced by the one billion cars that are currently on the world’s roads.
Heru Prasetyo, head of Indonesia’s REDD+ Agency
On Tuesday at the Climate Summit, the New York Declaration on Forests was endorsed by countries in the developed and developing world – including the United States, the EU, and a large number of tropical forest countries – as well as by multinationals from the food, paper, finance and other industries, civil society organizations and indigenous peoples from Peru to Nepal. For the first time, 156 of these global leaders agreed on a date to end deforestation, and the need for large-scale economic incentives for countries that reduce the loss of their forests. Deforestation is a frequently overlooked source of carbon dioxide emissions and a significant contributor to climate change, as trees, which store carbon, instead release it when they are burned during slash-and-burn land clearing of forests.
The Declaration, which was driven by a group of countries and companies with input from civil society and indigenous peoples, aims to change politics going into next year’s Paris climate talks and accelerate action by companies to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. The Declaration also calls for the restoration of over 350 million hectares of forests and croplands, an area greater than the size of India, which would bring significant climate benefits and take pressure off primary forests. It builds on announcements made at the Climate Summit and over the past months.
“I asked for countries and companies to bring bold pledges, and here they are,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The New York Declaration aims to reduce more climate pollution each year than the United States emits annually, and it doesn’t stop there. Forests are not only a critical part of the climate solution – the actions agreed today will reduce poverty, enhance food security, improve the rule of law, secure the rights of indigenous peoples and benefit communities around the world.”
“The New York Declaration sends an unmistakable signal going into Paris 2015,” said Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway. “Science tells us we won’t limit global warming to two degrees without massive efforts on forests. Today, forward-thinking leaders in government, business and civil society together have begun the push to enact policies, change practices and put in place appropriate incentives to end deforestation.”
“This is a serious commitment for a serious challenge,” said Heru Prasetyo, head of Indonesia’s REDD+ Agency. “With the strong partnership of key actors from governments, industry, indigenous and local communities as well as the international community I am confident we can achieve this ground-breaking vision.”
The Declaration’s endorsement comes as the forest sector is transformed by new policies and shifting demand from consumer goods companies and consumers, stronger land rights for indigenous peoples and greater advocacy by civil society. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down 75 per cent since 2004, and in the past nine months alone 60 per cent of the world’s highly carbon-intensive palm oil trade has come under commitments to go deforestation-free.
“Our planet is losing forests at a rate of eight football fields every ten seconds,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “Today we’ve seen important commitments from companies, governments, civil society and indigenous peoples to halt this trend. Now it is time for urgent collaboration to see these commitments realized on the ground.”
“The last few months have seen a welcome race to the top,” said Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, a consumer products company. “Consumers have sent companies a clear signal that they do not want their purchasing habits to drive deforestation and companies are responding. Better still, companies are committing to working in partnership with suppliers, governments and NGOs to strengthen forest governance and economic incentives. It can be done and this Declaration signals a real intention to accelerate action.”
“Forests are not solely economic resources, but are the center of spiritual life and cultural integration for indigenous peoples,” said Abdon Nababan, Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of Indonesia’s Archipelago (AMAN). “The New York Declaration is a long-awaited show of political will by all countries to support indigenous peoples as we fight to defend our forests.”
To support the New York Declaration, several specific commitments to action were announced today, including:
Three of the world’s largest palm oil companies – Wilmar, Golden Agri-Resources and Cargill, all of which recently announced deforestation-free sourcing policies and who jointly make up more than half of global palm oil trade – committed to work together on implementation, and joined the Indonesian Business Council in asking incoming Indonesian President Joko Widodo to support their efforts through legislation and policies.
Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom announced they would push for large-scale economic incentives as part of the Paris climate talks in 2015, and in the next couple of years pledged to enter into up to 20 new programs to pay countries for reduced deforestation rates, if credible programs were put forward. The three countries also pledge to consider funding additional, credible programs thereafter, if REDD+ countries deliver the results. A global coalition of indigenous peoples spanning Asia, Africa, Central America and the Amazon Basin pledged to protect the more than 400 million hectares of tropical forests under their management. This represents the storage of over 70 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
Peru and Liberia presented groundbreaking new forest policies, that see Peru getting up to US $300 million in funding from Norway and additional support from Germany, and Liberia receiving up to US $150 million from Norway, depending on results. Norway also announced support in the amount of US $100 million for indigenous peoples, as part of Norway’s total pledge of $3 billion for climate and forest purposes in the years through 2020.
Twenty-six governors from provinces covering a quarter of tropical forests pledged to do more than their fair share on climate change – to cut deforestation by 80 percent – if developed countries create new economic incentives.
DRC, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Uganda and several other countries are set to make national pledges to restore over 30 million hectares of degraded lands, more than doubling the 20 million hectares already pledged to date under the Bonn Challenge.
The Consumer Goods Forum, a coalition of 400 companies with combined sales over US $3 trillion, called on governments to pass a legally binding climate deal in Paris next year that includes large-scale payments to countries that reduce deforestation.
Several of Europe’s largest countries committed to develop new public procurement policies to sustainably source forest-intensive commodities like palm oil, soy, beef and timber. This is expected to have a significant market impact by leveraging the buying power of some of the world’s largest economies.
These announcements form part of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for action to keep global temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius by reducing emissions, moving money, pricing pollution, strengthening resilience and mobilizing new coalitions. Forests is one of eight areas identified as critical in the fight against climate change.
World leaders announced on Tuesday in New York new pledges to restore over 30 million hectares of degraded forest lands today at the UN Climate Summit. The commitments come from Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, and Uganda, among others, and more than doubled the number of hectares contributing to achieving the Bonn Challenge – a global goal to restore 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded lands by 2020.
These announcements came alongside an extension of the global restoration target to at least 350 million hectares – an area greater than the size of India – to be restored by 2030. This new target was unveiled at the Summit today in the New York Declaration on Forests. The Declaration, signed by IUCN, as well as more than 100 countries, corporations, indigenous peoples and civil society also calls for a halving of deforestation rates by 2020 and an end to global deforestation altogether by 2030.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN
“The courageous leadership demonstrated by these countries towards achieving the Bonn Challenge, and by the wide range of global leaders in support of the New York Declaration on Forests, underlines that nature-based solutions such as forest landscape restoration can play a vital role in our fight against climate change and addressing the fundamental need to reduce emissions,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN.
IUCN estimates that meeting the 150 million hectare Bonn Challenge target alone could add approximately $ 85 billion to national and local economies and remove an additional one billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “Today’s pledges by countries in Africa and Latin America to combat deforestation and more than double restoration targets will bring significant climate benefits. At the same time, such inspiring initiatives will contribute significantly to poverty reduction, economic development and food security across countries and regions.”
The restoration pledges and the New York Declaration on Forests arrive in preparation for next year’s climate talks in Paris, which are largely expected to result in a new global climate deal. Progress in New York signals significant support for ramping up restoration of lost and degraded forest lands as part of the post-2015 Paris climate agreements and development agenda.
“Restoration of degraded and deforested lands is not simply about planting trees, said Bianca Jagger, IUCN Ambassador for the Bonn Challenge, and Founder and Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. “People and communities are at the heart of the restoration effort, which transforms barren or degraded areas of land into healthy, fertile working landscapes.”
“The New York Declaration on Forests is a milestone as we enter the restoration generation,” said Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute. “It’s a triple win that can bring more water and food security, improve livelihoods, and help tackle climate change. We look forward to working with leaders to help ensure that they deliver on these commitments that will benefit people and the planet,”
Restoration pledges to the Bonn Challenge represent commitments from the highest level to start actual restoration work on the ground in support of each nation’s or organization’s individual objectives.
“IUCN-led work on forest landscape restoration began in the field and is now back in the field,” said Stewart Maginnis, Global Director of Nature-Based Solutions at IUCN. “What started as a grassroots approach to address local needs and challenges has now captured the attention of public, private, and civil society leaders around the world. These leaders are now initiating action on the ground to simultaneously meet local needs and international climate change commitments.”
