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Achim Steiner on Climate Change Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, spoke to Christian Schwägerl of SPIEGEL about the current state of global climate negotiations ahead of the UN conference in Durban, South Africa. Achim Steiner’s views are summed up below. If emissions aren't soon uncoupled from economic growth, the earth will warm to a state that will threaten our prosperity. That's exactly why climate policy is neither futile nor defeated. On the contrary, it's obviously just at the beginning. Flood disasters like the one that recently occurred in Thailand must not become routine. Anyone who dismisses the risk of climate change today does so out of deficient scientific understanding or very shortsighted economic interests. New findings show that climate researchers have more likely underestimated than overestimated the speed and magnitude of the changes. It's not true that climate protection measures would make energy ...

FDI in Retail The UPA Government’s decision to throw open the huge Indian market to multinational companies, which had been lobbying for years for entry into multi-brand retail has evoked mixed reactions. The government claims that this move will culminate in creating about 10 million jobs. The protagonists of this policy claim that apart from helping calm inflation, it will spur improvement of supply chains because half of the investment will go for that. The opening of Mega Stores will be limited to cities with population of over one million and retailers are required to source 30 per cent material from small and medium enterprises. Those who are opposed to FDI in retail in India have argued that livelihood of about 40 million shopkeepers and vendors will be at stake. Besides, the farmers will be left at the mercy of foreign multinational companies. It is also argued that predatory pricing is likely to affect small vendors and it will ultimately culminate in encouraging mo...

Asian Cities Food Resilience By Dr Arvind Kumar Experts at a recently held UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) workshop in Bangkok on resilient food systems in Asia said that Asia’s largest cities will need to maximize every bit of space, from rooftops to railroad tracks, to feed one of the world's fastest-growing populations. Although fewer people live in cities than in Asia's rural areas - approximately 43 percent - the UN projects an 89 percent increase in the region's urban population (1.6 billion people) by 2050. According to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Asia had 12 megacities of more than 10 million people each, half the world's population and the second-fastest rate of urbanization worldwide as of 2010. Brian Roberts, an Australia-based urban management specialist, has opined that feeding this expanding urban population will be a ‘challenge’ due to the widespread lack of land tenure and access to cash and ...

Regional disaster response in Asia By Dr Arvind Kumar Recent media reports indicate that the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Center) was formally endorsed and signed at the association's summit on 17 November in Bali (Indonesia), signalling a greater role for regional mechanisms. Oliver Lacey-Hall, regional head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bangkok said: "That's the goal. That's the way forward." When disaster strikes, national capacities are often not enough; with regional mechanisms such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific offering a second line of response. The UN and international community would form a third tier - ready to assist national and regional efforts. Establishing order in times of crisis is one of the goals for the AHA Center, active ...

Weather Disasters & Climate Change By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a UN science report released on 18 November the link between climate change and extreme weather events, including punishing heat waves, droughts, and torrential rains and resulting floods is confirmed. The report warns that the U.S. will suffer heat waves, droughts, and more powerful hurricanes like Irene, with vulnerable people and places likely to suffer most from extreme weather, including low-lying island States facing sea level rise and stronger storm surges, and drought-prone countries in Africa. New York released its own climate study in mid-November, predicting that with expected sea level rise and stronger storms, future hurricanes could flood the tunnels into Manhattan within an hour and put one-third of the city underwater, with climate induced impacts beginning within a decade. The cost of US weather disasters in 2011 is already approaching $50 billion, according to the National Climate Dat...

Cooking Stoves Linked to Pneumonia By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent study published in Lancet journal and reported by the media, in many developing nations around the world, cooking is primarily done over a wood-burning fire pit. It is estimated that this is the primary cooking and heating source for 43% of the global population, about 3 billion people. A team of international researchers have found that pneumonia is linked with young children who are continuously exposed to the smoke from cooking fires. They found that if smoke-reducing chimneys are used on the cooking stoves, cases of severe pneumonia can be reduced by one-third. Cooking fires are perhaps the type of air pollution that directly impacts human health, because its emissions take place right next to people’s breathing zones. The fires used in developing countries are almost always open flames with no real chimney. The researchers found that children, who are exposed every day to the smoke, inhaled the equ...

Global Fund in limbo By Dr Arvind Kumar Media reports show that international assistance to the Global Fund to fight HIV, TB and Malaria has more than halved the estimated amount of money available in its next round of funding, the disbursement of which has been delayed until 2013, due to the world economic crisis. The delay in Round 11 funding was announced at the Fund's latest board meeting on 26 September, the second such delay, which has pushed the application deadline back to at least 1 March 2012. According to Christoph Benn, director of the Fund's external relations and partnerships, the size of the pot has also shrunk - to US$800 million, less than half of the $1.5 billion projected for the round as of mid-2011. According to Mario Raviglione, director of Stop TB, more than 70 percent of antiretroviral drugs in the developing world are funded by the Global Fund and in Africa; it finances about 85 percent of TB programming. Mario further cautioned that reduc...

Climate Change & Rivers By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent study, soaring temperatures and erratic rains brought on by a changing climate may radically alter water flows in the world’s major river basins, forcing people to give up farming in some areas. The study – part of a five-year research project on four continents, the first to take a close look at 10 river basins - is based on data from 17 climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to examine the potential effect of changing temperatures and rainfall patterns on the water flows in rivers from now until 2050. Mark Mulligan, a leading author of the study, has opined that climate models cannot predict how rainfall patterns will behave in future with a high degree of certainty: “What we do know is that we cannot be confident about hydrological stability. Some rivers could become wetter and then drier, or vice versa. The key message to countries is: ‘Become more adaptable’.” Th...

26th October 2011 Morning: Dr. Arvind Kumar at United Nations office to attend First International Environment Forum for Basin Organizations, Bangkok, 26-28 October 2011

Children’s Day By Dr Arvind Kumar Today is 14th November; the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, and this day is celebrated as Children’s Day throughout the nation. However, the plight of children in India is deplorable as can be judged from following facts: Ø One third of the world’s children living in poverty are in India; Ø Every 6th girl-child’s death is due to gender discrimination, also known as female infanticide; Ø Over 10 million children go to sleep on the pavement each night hungry and unprotected; Ø Over 40% of children live in poverty and extreme hardship Ø Nearly half of India’s children are deprived of their fundamental right to education each day; Ø A startling two-thirds of girl-children cannot read or write; Ø An estimated 111 million children struggling as child labourers - most often working in hazardous and degrading conditions; Ø The third largest crime in India after drugs and gun smuggling...

International Meet on Water Use Efficiency By Dr Arvind Kumar An international conference on water use efficiency in the industrial sector was jointly organized by India Water Foundation and Rajasthan Industrial Development & Investment Corporation (RIICO) at Jaipur recently. With the prime focus on making the judicious and wise usage of water resources in Indian industries, the conference brought together representatives from government, industry, civil society and academia on the same platform to discuss various issues pertaining to water conservation, water and climate change, industrial water laws and regulation and institutional challenges. The conference witnessed the participation of the who's who of the decision makers from the government, public and private Sectors. Some of those who were there at the conference included the Central Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources, Shri Pawan Bansal, Shri. Rajendra Pareek, Minister of Water Resource ...

Downturn & Social Unrest By Dr Arvind Kumar A report released on 31 october 2011 by International Labour Organization, points to a disastrous global jobs situation and a “vicious cycle” sending the world economy into a new downturn. The report further warns, “The next few months will be crucial for avoiding a dramatic downturn in employment and a further significant aggravation of social unrest.” Three years after the crash of 2008, “economic growth in major advanced economies has come to a halt and some countries have re-entered recession, notably in Europe,” the ILO notes. “Growth has also slowed down in large emerging and developing countries.” The advanced economies have 13 million fewer jobs today than in 2007, with the United States (6.7 million) and Spain (2.3 million) accounting for more than half of this figure. Due to the growth in the labor force, to restore pre-crisis employment rates, 27 million jobs would have to be added in advanced countries, and 80 milli...

India & Nepal By Dr Arvind Kumar The recent visit of Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to India may prove instrumental in further cementing the bonds of friendship between New Delhi and Kathmandu. By connecting with the largest political party in Nepal headed by Bhattarai, India can improve its image of being often seen as being involved in machinations against the Nepali Maoists, and as displaying a big brotherly attitude towards Kathmandu. Undoubtedly some hardline factions within the party remain somewhat wary and hostile towards India. The time is more than ripe for India to do its part in improving its image. The political impasse in Nepal was broken by the appointment of Bhattarai as Prime Minister, and the political class now needs to get on with the crucial task of writing the Constitution through the Constituent Assembly. Helping Nepal achieve that goal, without being seen to be partisan vis-a-vis Nepal's complex internal dynamics should be New Del...