By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jun 5, 2012 (IPS) – When it comes to expressing the threat to food security posed by changing climate patterns and extreme weather events in Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) does not mince its words.

Continue Reading

By Fabíola Ortiz

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 4, 2012 (IPS) – As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which will discuss the green economy, the Brazilian city has put an end to one of its worst environmental sins: the enormous Jardim Gramacho garbage dump on Guanabara Bay.

Continue Reading

Thalif Deen

Nações Unidas, 4/6/2012, (IPS) – Em uma drástica virada política antes da Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre Desenvolvimento Sustentável, a Rio+20, o Canadá anunciou sua disposição de reconhecer o acesso a água e saneamento como um direito humano básico.

Continue Reading

Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canadá, 4 de junho de 2012, (IPS) – (Tierramérica).- Um ombudsman das futuras gerações pode se contrapor à natureza de curto prazo dos ciclos eleitorais dos governos, ao defender interesses e necessidades das próximas gerações.

Continue Reading

By Karina Boeckmann

BERLIN, Jun 4, 2012 (IPS) – Land degradation poses a threat to all life on Earth including humanity. To stop the enormous loss of life-giving land, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is pushing for a sustainable development goal of Zero Net Land Degradation (ZNLD) to be adopted at the upcoming Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, in Brazil.

Continue Reading

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 4, 2012 (IPS) – After weeklong negotiations, a meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) to finalise a plan of action titled “The Future We Want” for next week’s Rio+20 summit has failed to reach agreement – and deferred a decision to a final three-day session in Brazil.

Continue Reading

By Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jun 4, 2012 (IPS) – Ecologically ignorant policies are largely responsible for the interlinked crises that are unraveling the planet’s life support system.

Continue Reading

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 1, 2012 (IPS) – As the international community readies for a global mega- conference on sustainable development in Brazil mid-June, the United Nations is determined to practice what it preaches to the outside world: improve resource efficiency and drastically reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue Reading

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

KATHMANDU, May 30, 2012 (IPS) – After years of working out of a small, dimly-lit office in a crowded bazaar here, Yug Tamrakar has just moved up a gravel road to occupy five floors of a new building, where sunlight pours through large glass windows.

Continue Reading

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, May 30, 2012 (IPS) – The reproductive rights agenda, from improving women’s access to education to systematic family planning to reducing birth rates and combating poverty, has become a cornerstone of most industrialised nations’ development policies toward the least developed countries (LDCs), comprised primarily of sub-Saharan African states.

Continue Reading