7 December 2016 (UN) – The United Nations and its partner non-governmental organizations today launched an appeal for $2.66 billion to provide emergency assistance across eight countries in the Sahel region, where “millions of people still live in conditions of deplorable human suffering.” “The Sahel faces considerable challenges and will remain the site of […]
NEW YORK, 9 December 2016 (UNICEF) – An estimated 535 million children – nearly one in four – live in countries affected by conflict or disaster, often without access to medical care, quality education, proper nutrition and protection, UNICEF said today. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly three-quarters – 393 million – of the global […]
By Alister Doyle; editing by Mark Heinrich8 December 2016 OSLO, Norway (Reuters) – Giraffe numbers have declined by as much as 40 percent since the 1980s in a “silent extinction” driven by illegal hunting and an expansion of farmland in Africa, the Red List of endangered species reported on Thursday. Populations of the world’s tallest […]
By Peter Lykke Lind 25 November 2016 (Antananarivo) – The severe drought afflicting southern Madagascar has left 330,000 people on the brink of famine, a senior UN official has warned. Three successive years of failed rains have left the island nation wrestling with crop failure and a chronic lack of food and clean drinking water, […]
Recent estimates indicate that urban outdoor air pollution has risen by 8 per cent globally between 2008 and 2013.6 Urbanization, which is often associated with rising air pollution, is increasing too – by 2050, up to two thirds of the global population is expected to live in urban areas. Unless action is taken to control […]
26 October 2016 (UN) – Prior to a meeting today at the United Nations on sovereign debt restructuring, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced that in order to deal with sovereign debt crises – which are creating a growing threat to economic stability in many developing countries – the world is in […]
By Matteo Fagotto21 October 2016 (Foreign Policy) – Buabasah begins nervously checking the waters creeping up the coastline toward his partially destroyed home. As the high tide mounts the steep shore of this small Ghanaian fishing village perched on a shrinking peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Volta River estuary, he and other inhabitants […]
25 October 2016 (UN) – With just two months left in 2016, and despite a substantial drop in the number of migrants and refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean, the number of people losing their lives has witnessed a three-fold overall increase this year, and in one particular route by more than five-fold, the United […]
18 October 2016 (UN) – The head of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification told delegations gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, to assess the treaty’s implementation, the impacts of land degradation affect the sustainability of the entire world, so a global effort is needed to tackle it, including through the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable […]
21 September 2016 (EIA) – UK Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom today announced plans for a ban on ‘modern day’ ivory sales, a move she claimed would put the country’s rules on ivory sales among the world’s toughest. But the proposal outlined by the Government does not go nearly far enough and is effectively only a […]
