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The Altos de Florida neighbourhood in southwest Bogotá shows the shift from rural to urban landscapes. Credit: UNDP

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Dec 9 2024 (IPS)

Poverty, while declining in Latin America and the Caribbean so far this century, shows a new face, that of the looming vulnerability of the poor as they become less rural and more urban, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says in a new analysis.

“Not only is there more urban poverty, but also a greater percentage of the population is highly vulnerable, that is, they are very close to falling – and any small shock will make them fall – below the poverty line,” Almudena Fernández, chief economist for the region at the UNDP, told IPS.“It is no longer enough to lift people out of poverty; we have to think about the next step, to continue on this path, so that the population can consolidate”: Almudena Fernández.

Thus, “there is a segment of the population that remains above the poverty line, but which is pushed below it by an illness or the loss of household income,” Fernández told IPS from New York.

Rosa Meleán, 47, who was a teacher for 20 years in Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia, in Venezuela’s oil-rich northwest, told IPS that “falling back into poverty is like the slides where children play in the schoolyard: they keep going up, but with the slightest push they slide down again”.

Meleán has experienced this in person several times, supporting her parents, siblings and nephews with her salary, falling into poverty when her working-class father died, improving with a new job, her salary liquefied by hyperinflation (2017-2020), leaving teaching to search for other sources of income.

“You have to see what it’s like to be poor in Maracaibo, walking in 40 degrees (Celsius) to look for transport, without electricity, rationed water and earning US$25”, the last monthly salary she had as a teacher before retiring five years ago.

And then came the covid-19 pandemic, limiting her new occupations as an office worker or home tutor. She has barely recovered from that blow.

“We live in a time when shocks are more common – from extreme weather events, for example – and we see a lot of economic and financial volatility. We are a much more interconnected world. Any shock anywhere in the world produces a very direct contagion, they are the new normal,” says Fernández.

Shoppers jostle for the best prices at the Lo Valledor street market in Santiago, Chile. Urban households that ride the poverty line are particularly sensitive to food inflation. Credit: Max Valencia / FAO

Poverty falling in numbers

Starting in the 1950s, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a rapid process of urbanisation, becoming one of the most urbanised regions in the world.

Today, 82% of the population lives in urban areas, compared to the world average of 58%, according to the UNDP.

Over the last two decades, the region has made progress in reducing extreme poverty and poverty in general. Even with setbacks since 2014, it recorded its lowest poverty rate in 2022 (26%), with slight decreases estimated for 2023 (25.2%) and 2024 (25%).

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) indicates in its most recent report that poverty in 2023 will affect 27.3% of the region’s population, which it puts at 663 million people this year. This means that “172 million people in the region still do not have sufficient income to cover their basic needs (general poverty)”.

Among them, 66 million cannot afford a basic food basket (extreme poverty). But these figures are up to five percentage points better than in 2020, the worst year of the pandemic, and 80% of the progress is attributed to advances in Brazil, where transfers of resources to the poor were decisive.

ECLAC points out that poverty is higher in rural areas (39.1%) than in urban areas (24.6%), and that it affects more women than men of working age.

Despite the progress, “the speed of poverty reduction is starting to slow down, it is decreasing at a much slower rate. This is a first concern, because the region is growing less,” said Fernández.

She recalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts point to an average economic growth in the region of two per cent per year, “well below the world average. Thus, it will be more difficult to continue reducing poverty”.

A hill overcrowded with informal dwellings in the populous Petare neighbourhood in eastern Caracas. Credit: Humberto Márquez / IPS

Changing face

The proportion of poor people living in the region’s urban areas increased from 66% in 2000 to 73% in 2022, and the change is more dramatic among those living in extreme poverty, with the proportion of the urban extreme poor rising from 48% to 68% over the same period.

Tracing this change annually, a UNDP analysis found that urban poverty increased markedly during the commodity crisis of 2014 – and also during the pandemic – “revealing that urban poverty is more likely to increase in times of economic downturn than rural poverty”.

It argues that the post-pandemic rise in the cost of living affected urban households more, pushing households into poverty and worsening the living conditions of those who were already poor.

Urban households are more tied to the market economy than rural households, making them more vulnerable to economic fluctuations and related changes in employment.

In contrast, rural livelihoods allow households to use strategies such as subsistence farming, reallocation of labour, community support or selling assets such as livestock to cope with shocks. These are options that urban residents generally do not possess.

Another salient feature of the new face of urban poverty is that it is often concentrated in informal settlements on the peripheries of cities, where overcrowding and limited access to basic services create additional challenges.

Thus, in the Venezuelan case, “the features of poverty and vulnerability that stand out in urban poverty have to do with the precariousness of public services and the lack of opportunities,” Roberto Patiño, founder of Convive, a community development organisation, and Alimenta la Solidaridad, a welfare organisation, told IPS.

Patiño believes that “the burden of the cost of living and inflation is difficult to bear for people living in poverty in both urban and rural areas, even though in rural areas the food issue may be less serious”.

This is because in rural areas “people have access to smallholdings, to their own crops, and also, being farming areas, food costs tend to be lower than in the city, but health issues and other services such as transport, health and education are very precarious”, the activist pointed out.

Patiño mentioned another mark on the new face of poverty, that of the millions of Venezuelans who migrated to other South American countries in the last decade and who “have not recovered from the pandemic, from an economic point of view, with many of the migrants living in a precarious situation”.

A teenager doing homework in the Delmas 32 slum in Port-au-Prince. Credit: Dominic Chávez / WB

Seeking solutions

The UNDP argues that addressing poverty in urban and rural areas requires differentiated strategies, as policies that work in rural areas, such as promoting agricultural productivity and improving access to assets and markets, do not sit well with the plight of the urban poor.

For them, the cost of housing and food inflation are relevant concerns.

Fernández said that “much of the social policy that was implemented in the region decades ago, which is ongoing, was designed with a very rural poverty in mind, how to help the agricultural sector, how to achieve greater productivity in agriculture, how to meet basic unsatisfied needs in rural areas”.

“Now we must move toward a social policy that focuses a little more on the unsatisfied needs of urban poverty,” she said.

She believes that “urbanisation allows for another series of opportunities. For example, the greater agglomeration of people allows for easier access to services”, although there may also be negative effects such as a more difficult insertion in the labour market or health problems associated with overcrowding.

Among the solutions, Fernández ranked the need for greater economic growth first, “because we are not going to be able to reduce poverty if we do not grow”.

The economist then ranked education, good in quantity (coverage), but which must now focus on quality, in second place, in order to address the digital transition that is underway and the need for more training for workers.

Finally, the need for social protection – and despite slower growth and a tighter fiscal balance across the region, Fernández acknowledges –and investment in protecting people more, with policies and measures that include, for example, care, employability, productivity and insurance.

“It is no longer enough to lift people out of poverty; we have to think about the next step, to continue on this path, so that the population can consolidate, with a stable middle class that has mechanisms so that in times of stress or shock its consumption does not fall sharply,” said Fernández.

In other words, so that those who have their basic needs covered do not have to slide back down the poverty chute with every economic or health shock.

G20 social in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

By Jyotsna Mohan Singh
NEW DELHI, India, Dec 9 2024 (IPS)

South Africa’s G20 Presidency begun in December, with only 12% of SDG targets on track and significant backsliding on more than 30%. As we write this today, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift and practical solutions for a progressive, people-centred, and development-driven agenda in a fractured global landscape that needs collective healing.

This sense of urgency was pinned down at the recent G20 Summit in Brasil, where South Africa assumed the Presidency amidst calls from global civil society at the Civil20 (C20) Summit to address today’s most pressing challenges: climate change, gender inequality, social inequalities, economic injustice and attacks on civic space.

This year, the Brasilian Association of NGOs (Abong), chaired the C20, amplifying the demands of social movements and civil society for global justice, highlighting the importance of gender in public policies, anti-racist economies, climate justice, the fight against hunger and the urgent need for a reform of international governance.

“Civil society is not merely a participant; it is a driving force for justice, equity, and sustainability. Without our voices at the table, solutions risk being incomplete, inequitable, and disconnected from the realities of the most vulnerable,” says Henrique Frota, Executive Director of Abong.

Yet, while the G20 leaders addressed major global crises, from climate change to economic inequities, the voices of those most affected by these challenges—grassroots movements, communities that have been historically marginalised, and civil society actors—still struggle to resonate within the halls of power. In fact, gaps persist in ambition and action, exposing a troubling disconnect between commitments made in international forums and the lived realities of citizens from across the globe.

Civil Society as Equal Partners: Moving Beyond Symbolism

The G20 Rio de Janeiro Declaration, emphasizes inclusivity and acknowledges civil society’s role , but it omits the issue of shrinking civic space in many member countries. The G20 should adopt concrete measures to protect civic freedoms and support CSOs in challenging environments. Futhermore, while the Declaration noted the inclusion of civil society groups in dialogues like the G20 Social Summit, it stopped short of guaranteeing institutionalised access for CSOs.

Jyotsna Mohan Singh, Forus, C20

Aoi Horiuchi, Senior Advocacy Officer at the Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC) shared that despite opportunities for C20 to meet, decision-makers and submit recommendations, “access is still limited”. The meeting with President Lula happened just days before the Leaders’ Summit. He emphasizes, “civil society as an official stakeholder group, should have access to all preparatory meetings and have space for speaking up. To truly “leave no one behind”, we need to maintain the momentum and push for more progressive policies on taxing and economic justice.”

Meaningful engagement with civil society cannot be an afterthought. Governments must ensure that civil society has the autonomy, resources, and protected spaces necessary to contribute fully to global governance processes. Expanding civic engagement is crucial, especially at the national level. Data shows that 87% of the global population lives in countries where civic freedoms are restricted.

As we approach the first G20 Summit on the African continent in 2025, “breaking silos, shifting power, and amplifying Global South movements must become central priorities for global governance reform,” says Anselmo Lee, Lead from the Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development.

“We must move beyond a purely event-driven approach and establish clear, systematic mechanisms for reviewing decisions and ensuring their effective implementation,” adds Harsh Jaitli, Chief Executive Officer of the Voluntary Action Network India (VANI). Over the years, along with other national platforms, VANI has worked towards strengthening the voice of civil society in this space.

Inequality and Systemic Change: Missing the Mark

The Declaration rightly identified inequality as a root cause of global challenges but failed to propose bold measures to dismantle the structures that sustain the giant inequality pyramid. The creation of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is a step forward. Specifically on access to food, the declaration identifies hunger as a pressing global issue, affecting 733 million people in 2023, and emphasizes the G20’s commitment to eradicating hunger. The vague language and lack of binding commitments undermine these efforts. Specific timelines and accountability frameworks are missing.

We need clear action to address inequalities and extreme wealth concentration, fair financing and reforms of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and public development banks (PDBs) to provide financing that directly benefits marginalised communities and an increase in support to local actions, notably investing in community-driven solutions that prioritise equity and sustainability. In the narratives and the actions, there is insufficient detail on the mobilization of resources for grassroots and community-led initiatives, a critical element of Forus’s advocacy for inclusive and sustainable financing.

Policy Coherence: Balancing the Scales and Building a Holistic Approach to Sustainability

While the G20 Declaration highlighted policy coherence as essential for achieving the SDGs, it leans heavily on private sector-driven solutions. Blended finance and private capital mobilization dominated the agenda, sidelining civil society and community-led initiatives and reinforcing the systemic inequities that perpetuate inequality.

A just and sustainable world cannot be achieved through fragmented efforts. Instead, a holistic approach that leverages the collective expertise and experiences of all stakeholders, public, private, and civil society. From a CSO perspective, a critical gap persists in aligning economic growth objectives with environmental, social, and human rights priorities. Without such alignment, conflicting objectives risk perpetuating systemic inequalities and ecological harm, undermining the promise of the SDGs. Moreover, the recent trend of certain governments, such as Argentina’s proposed withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, highlights a dangerous backslide from climate commitments and a disregard for sustainable development goals.

Gender Equality: From Rhetoric to Reality

The G20 Declaration’s recognition of gender equality and commitments to combating gender-based violence are important steps forward. However, the absence of concrete action plans undermines their potential impact. Women and girls continue to face systemic barriers, including unequal access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, as well as the pervasive threat of gender-based violence. To achieve meaningful progress, policies must go beyond rhetoric and actively dismantle discriminatory norms while creating leadership opportunities for women across all sectors.

The C20 group, has emphasised the need to address exclusion in all its forms. Expanding spaces for groups that have historically been marginalised and ensuring their full, equal, and meaningful participation in governance processes is not only a matter of justice but also a prerequisite for the type of development that We want. This includes acknowledging the intersecting challenges faced by rural and Indigenous women and those experiencing multiple forms of discrimination.

“Beyond commitments, we need frameworks that address intersectional inequalities and create leadership opportunities for all women, including rural, Indigenous, and LGBTIQ+ communities,” says Alessandra Nilo, C20 Sherpa, Director of Gestos, Brasil.

Reforming Global Governance for a Just Future

The G20 Declaration acknowledges the urgent need to reform global governance systems to address the complex crises of our time—geopolitical tensions, economic inequities, and climate emergencies. Commitments to the UN reform and enhancing transparency in global governance are promising. The emphasis on anti-corruption measures and progressive taxation aligns with civil society’s struggles.

A critical starting point is amplifying the voice of World Majority countries in global decision-making. The inclusion of the African Union as a full G20 member is a welcome development, signaling progress toward inclusivity. However, current power imbalances, where wealthier nations disproportionately influence global policy agendas, must be dismantled to ensure fairness and inclusivity.

As the G20, a premier global forum, assumes increasing responsibility for shaping the global agenda, it is imperative that it takes a strong stance on these issues and “shift powers”.

As the C20 Declaration reminds us, the solutions to today’s challenges lie in inclusive governance that empowers those most affected by global crises. We urge governments and G20 stakeholders to institutionalise civil society participation, prioritise rights-based solutions, and deliver on commitments to equity and sustainability. By weaving together the principles of rights, equity, sustainability, and collaboration, we can begin to build a future where “no one is left behind” not just in theory but also in practice.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Furtuna (5) is getting the early education she deserves, and she loves counting with children at the Mahabre Dego Primary School, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. ECW and strategic partners’ investments in the country provide much-needed support for young crisis-affected girls and boys to have a better start in life through quality early education. Credit: ECW/Tesfaye

By Joyce Chimbi
ADDIS ABABA & NAIROBI, Dec 9 2024 (IPS)

Ethiopia’s education system is buckling under the weight of complex, competing challenges. The aftermath of a deadly war in the north, ongoing violence, climate-induced disasters, and widespread forced displacements have converged to push as many as 9 million children out of school. With close to 18 percent of schools in the country destroyed or damaged and persisting intercommunal conflicts in various regions, there are fears that many might never find their way back to school.

“In the absence of education, both boys and girls may be mobilized into militant groups, and frequently, girls will be subjected to child marriage. The choice is to provide them with an education, as it is the pathway to their future and contribution to their society and also as a protection mechanism,” says Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations. “Being out-of-school puts them in harm’s way and onto the path of abuse, violations, and the destruction of their lives, their communities, and eventually their country. We must ensure that no child is left behind in the education system. Investing in the very real potential of Ethiopia’s young generation is not an option—it is an absolute necessity.”

Sherif traveled to the Tigray region in the first week of December 2024 together with the ECW Global Champion and Finance Minister of Denmark, Nicolai Wammen. ECW’s high-level delegation saw first-hand the devastating effects of the deadly three-year conflict between the Ethiopian central government and the northernmost region of Tigray, Ethiopia.

Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and Nicolai Wammen, ECW Global Champion and Danish Minister of Finance, visit a school in the Tigray Region in Ethiopia. The delegation met with girls and boys whose education was interrupted for over three years due to conflict. Thanks to ECW & strategic partners’ support in the region, students are back in the classroom where they belong.
Credit: ECW/Tesfaye

The aftermath and recovery process are such that, amid limited resources, the country is putting back the pieces of a broken education infrastructure to jumpstart an education system that had come to a complete halt. At the end of their joint visit, the two called for bold donor action to deliver the promise of a quality education to millions of crisis-impacted children.

“We have a multi-year investment and great partners on the ground, including a very supportive government. We work with UN agencies, including UNICEF, and civil society organizations such as Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Image1Day and other local Ethiopian organizations,” Sherif told IPS.

The ECW delegation visited schools benefiting from funding by ECW and strategic partners, met children, parents, and teachers, and saw first-hand the impact of ECW-supported programmes. In one school alone, enrollment increased by an impressive 20 percent last year due to a comprehensive package of interventions funded by ECW.

“It is heartwarming to witness the life-transforming power of quality education in the most complex crisis situations. I met strong and resilient girls and boys who are returning to learning, healing and thriving thanks to ECW’s support. However, conflicts, climate change and other crises continue to push millions of children out of school every year—in Ethiopia and beyond. Business as usual will not meet this challenge. I encourage private sector partners to join ECW’s efforts and invest in new and innovative financing strategies to fill the widening gap,” said Nicolai Wammen, Minister of Finance, Denmark, and ECW Global Champion.

Breiy Nuguse is a teacher at the ECW-supported FreKalsi Primary School in the Tigray Region, Ethiopia, where children are back in classrooms after over three years of missing out on an education due to the conflict that devasted the region. “Teaching makes me happy. I love teaching and when I see children learn, it is so rewarding. I was inspired to become a teacher, as my teachers were so wonderful when I was at school. I realize the gift of learning that they gave me, and I wanted to do the same for the next generation,” Nuguse said. Credit: ECW//Tesfaye

Sherif says the delegation saw significant progress in supported schools, such as “rehabilitated infrastructure and others rebuilt from scratch. We saw learning supplies, teachers who are well trained and sensitized, and professionals offering mental health and psychosocial services. There is a strong academic curriculum. Included in the national curriculum are critical issues of peacebuilding, ethics, and the arts. Education is ongoing in primary and secondary schools but also in pre-primary and early childhood development schools. Children with disabilities also benefit from targeted supports and inclusive education.”

Overall, they witnessed a protective learning environment that included systematic implementation of a referral identification of children in need and distribution of assistive devices, and children in need of assistance integrated with their peers, which promotes their inclusion and improves their social and learning skills.

There were girls’ clubs too for pursuit of shared and common interests. Teachers are trained on gender-sensitive issues, and there is systematic implementation of menstrual hygiene for adolescent girls, designated sanitation areas for girls, and promotion of water and sanitation.

Displaced and host community students who attend the ECW-supported Embandaso Primary School in the Tigray Region, Ethiopia, enjoy drawing so they can express their feelings and their dreams.
Credit: ECW/Tesfaye

“The children are receiving quality, safe, and inclusive holistic education. Having gone through mental health and psychosocial support through ECW investment, they are confident and expressive of their dreams. This is what investment in education can do, and we can do even more through bold donor action to reach every child with quality education and prospects for lifelong learning and earning,” Sherif observes.

But the challenges are still significantly complex and pressing, and resources are scarce.

Ethiopia also hosts the third largest refugee population in Africa, significantly exacerbating the country’s educational challenges. There were over 200,000 new arrivals from Sudan and Somalia in 2023-2024 alone, further increasing pressure on existing resources.

After a visit that revealed the numerous challenges Ethiopian children face and their unwavering determination to learn, ECW announced a USD 5 million First Emergency Response grant, increasing its total investments in the country to USD 93 million since 2017.

Of the new USD 5 million grant, UNICEF will be the implementing partner for USD 4 million. A local organization, Imagine 1Day, will implement the remaining USD 1 million. The organizations will work together with their partners to address urgent needs in the Oromia and Afar regions, where renewed conflict, intercommunal violence, drought and displacement have further disrupted education services in recent months.

These emergency interventions will build on the USD 24 million Multi-Year Resilience Programme announced last month by ECW, targeting needs in the Amhara, Somalia, and Tigray regions.

Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and Nicolai Wammen, ECW Global Champion and Danish Minister of Finance, are welcomed by students at the ECW-supported Chila Primary School in Tigray, Ethiopia. Children here have missed more than three years of education due to COVID and the conflict that devastated the region.
Photo credit: ECW

“Imagine1Day is deeply grateful for this Education Cannot Wait First Emergency Response grant. With this generous support, we will provide over 13,000 out-of-school children in the Afar region—60 percent of whom are girls and 13 percent are children with disabilities—with access to safe learning environments. This project will not only enhance their well-being but also empower them to reach their full potential. Given that education in emergencies in Ethiopia has been severely underfunded, this grant is crucial in ensuring that crisis-affected children receive the education and support they need to build a brighter future,” said Dr. Seid Aman, Country Director of Imagine1Day.

To date, ECW’s combined multi-year and emergency investments in Ethiopia have reached more than 550,000 children and adolescents, providing a comprehensive range of supports—school rehabilitation, teacher training, mental health and psychosocial support, inclusive education, school feeding, gender transformative initiatives, early childhood education, and more. ECW’s support focuses on the most vulnerable, including girls, children from refugee, displaced and host community communities, and children with disabilities.

ECW’s investments are aligned to the Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan and the Ethiopia Education Sector Development Programme VI, a detailed planning document that provides a comprehensive outlook of the roadmap that the country’s education sector is taking. The Global Fund urgently calls for additional resources to fill the USD 64 million funding gap to meet the requirements for the acute education needs in the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Ethiopia.

Working in emergency and protracted crisis settings across the globe, ECW supports quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced, and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so no one is left behind.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Local people from Watamu, Kenya, work with Local Ocean Conservation to pick up plastic on the beach. Credit: UNEP/Cyril Villemain

By Dharmesh Shah
KERALA, India, Dec 9 2024 (IPS)

As the fifth round of negotiations of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a global plastics treaty concluded in Busan, South Korea (25 November-December 1 2024), the meeting underscored both the complexities and the promises of multilateralism. What we saw in Busan was indicative of other environmental treatymaking spaces, including ones on climate and biodiversity.

There is a stark contrast between countries who are willing to show ambition and those who will engage in obstruction at any cost. This exposes the systemic challenges that both plague and demonstrate the enduring potential of multilateral environmental diplomacy to confront global challenges.

The plastics crisis affects every living being on the planet, becoming an undeniable reality rather than just a collection of statistics or headlines. Every day brings new stories of its impact on our health, environment, and livelihoods. Recognizing the scale of this crisis, countries around the world came together almost three years ago to say enough is enough.

The plastics treaty negotiations are the result of this collective realization, marking a critical step toward addressing a problem that touches every corner of our shared existence.

A 30-foot-high monument entitled Turn off the Plastics Tap by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong was exhibited at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2022. Credit: UNEP/Cyril Villemain

We were supposed to leave Busan with treaty text that would be ready for adoption. But instead, negotiators left without an agreement on the treaty, the barriers ahead are not only procedural or political; they are also philosophical. They reflect a deeper battle between the outdated paradigms of profit-driven growth and the urgent need for a collective reimagining of progress.

Petro-states are continuing to cling to fossil-fueled profits at the expense of collective well-being. It is not merely an economic strategy—it is a moral failure that will damage generations to come!

A Tale of Two Ambitions

Despite significant challenges, the negotiations also showed critical pathways forward. Panama and the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) emerged as powerful voices advocating for a global cap on plastic production—a bold proposal that garnered substantial support from 100 countries.

In a decisive show of ambition during the closing plenary, Rwanda, speaking on behalf of 95 nations, championed ambitious controls on plastic production, while Mexico, representing 85 countries, pressed for stringent regulations on chemicals of concern. These elements represent the backbone of a treaty that is fit to overcome the scale of the plastics crisis and deliver meaningful and lasting solutions.

The Shadow of Petrochemical Interests

The petrochemical industry’s influence loomed large over INC-5, with industry representatives forming the largest single delegation at the talks — outnumbering delegations of Indigenous Peoples, scientists, and some countries including the European Union and all of its member states.

This outsized presence underscores the strategic interest of fossil fuel giants toward plastics as renewable energy and progressive climate policies shrink traditional markets.

Petrochemicals, used in everyday products like plastics and medical equipment, are now the largest drivers of global oil demand, surpassing cars and planes. They are projected to account for over a third of oil demand growth by 2030 and nearly half by 2050, adding 7 million barrels of oil and 83 billion cubic meters of natural gas consumption daily by mid-century.

This shift represents a calculated gamble to embed plastics deeper into the global economy, ensuring the fossil fuel industry’s continued dominance despite the environmental and health costs. Yet the environmental and health costs of this strategy are catastrophic. Without significant reductions in plastic production, the sector is poised to consume up to 31% of the remaining carbon budget needed to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

But climate impact is only part of the story. Plastics are fundamentally chemical products, often containing a cocktail of toxic additives that threaten human and planetary health. From endocrine disruptors leaching into water supplies to carcinogens linked to manufacturing processes, the chemical footprint of plastics amplifies the crisis far beyond its carbon implications.

Decarbonizing the plastics industry, as some companies now propose, is a false solution. True solutions must address not only the climate footprint of plastics but also their broader toxic legacy.

An Unfinished Fight

While the Busan meeting failed to produce a treaty, it succeeded in highlighting what must change for future negotiations to succeed. Moreover, it remained successful in retaining the obligations that mattered by countering derailing tactics by certain bad-faith actors. The next resumed session (INC-5.2) offers a critical opportunity to address key sticking points:

1. Production Limits: A global cap on plastic production is non-negotiable. Countries must resist attempts to dilute this measure and instead push for clear, enforceable targets.

2. Chemical Regulation: The treaty must include robust mechanisms to phase out harmful chemicals in plastics, coupled with transparency and traceability requirements to ensure that people have a right to know what chemicals go into their products.

3. Financing Mechanisms: Developing nations are disproportionately affected by plastic pollution and they need financial and technical support to implement treaty obligations. The treaty should be funded by developed countries and should also ensure that the private sector, especially polymer producers, pays its share.

4. Inclusivity and Transparency: The exclusion of observers, Indigenous peoples, and civil society from critical stages of the Busan session undermined the treaty’s legitimacy. Future sessions must prioritize meaningful inclusivity and transparency, ensuring that all voices, especially those from Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities, are heard.

Holding Spoilers Accountable

It is imperative to call out countries that continue to obstruct progress in the INC negotiations. Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran, among others, self-organized under the so-called “Like-Minded Countries” bloc and have consistently opposed meaningful advances in the treaty process. Their tactics go beyond mere scepticism of the process. They actively undermine the treaty’s ambition and hold back substantive decisions by weaponizing the requirement for consensus in all decisions.

Consensus, while valuable for inclusivity, is being misused as a way to stifle ambition. International precedent, from the Minamata Convention to the Montreal Protocol, demonstrates that incorporating voting as a last resort when countries can otherwise not agree, strengthens negotiation processes and ensures democratic decision-making. Without this safeguard, the plastics treaty risks being shaped by the interests of the few at the expense of the many.

To salvage the treaty’s ambition, the INC must embrace procedural reforms that prioritize efficiency and inclusivity. Voting provisions are essential to overcoming the current impasse and enabling the majority of nations to push forward robust, science-based measures.

A Path Forward

The road to a binding global plastics treaty will not be easy, but the urgency of the crisis leaves no room for complacency. Multilateralism, while imperfect, remains our best hope for tackling global challenges. The successes of past agreements, from the Montreal Protocol to the Minamata Convention, remind us that persistence and ambition can yield transformative results.

We may have left Busan without a treaty — but no treaty was better than a weak one. Civil society, scientists, and progressive nations must rally to maintain pressure, ensuring that the treaty addresses the full lifecycle of plastics—from extraction to disposal—and delivers justice for affected communities. High-ambition country negotiators will have to leave their diplomatic tightropes at home and bring their steel-toed boots to the next session.

In the words of Panama’s lead negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, “When we reconvene, the stakes will be higher. This is not a drill, this is a fight for survival. We did not accept a weak treaty here, and we never will.”

Dharmesh Shah is Consulting Senior Campaigner with Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and coordinator of the Civil Society and Rights Holders Coalition.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: Alex Berger in North Western Zambia

By Leah Mitaba and Bibbi Abruzzini
LUSAKA, Zambia, Dec 6 2024 (IPS)

Over the past few years, new “tools of control” affecting the work of civil society organisations have multiplied, often imposing forms of “bureaucratic criminalisation” and “administrative harassment”. In particular, more and more restrictive and demanding laws are hurting civil society organisations’s capacity to operate across the globe.

2024 saw a new NGO Bill being proposed in Zambia. The proposed Bill seeks to introduce new regulations for the governance of civil society organisations. Under the bill, all NGOs would be required to re-register every five years and adhere to mandatory membership in a government-regulated central body. It also imposes stringent reporting requirements, including disclosure of activities, funding sources, and personal wealth declarations by NGO officials. Failure to comply with these provisions could result in severe penalties, including heavy fines and imprisonment.

“Placing the same onerous registration requirement on small Community Based Organisations in the provinces as their national well resource counterparts shows very weak understanding of the NGO landscape in Zambia. These requirements would wipe out scores of organisations who carry out vital grassroot work,” says Laura Miti, Executive Director at Alliance for Community Action.

Zambian CSOs warn that these measures, far from promoting accountability or transparency, represent an overreach by the state, placing undue burdens on organizations and jeopardizing their autonomy. If enacted, the NGO Bill could severely limit the ability of CSOs to operate independently, advocate for human rights, and support development initiatives across the country.

“The Non-Governmental Organisations Bill continues the trend by the government to oversee the work of civil society. Several provisions undermine the work that advocacy civil society organisations undertake. The Bill is not a result of consensus among civil society and between civil society and government. Civil society’s asks have not changed since the government began taking steps to enact legislation regulating the sector years ago. Yet, each time a Bill is shared, it does not reflect the aspirations of the sector and does not provide any protections an enabling legislation should,” says Josiah Kalala, Executive Director at Chapter One Foundation.

In a joint statement signed by platforms representing over 400 organizations, including the Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD), Transparency International, NGOCC, and the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Zambian CSOs have highlighted the following critical issues with the proposed bill:

· Overregulation and Intrusiveness: Provisions such as mandatory central membership and re-registration undermine the sector’s autonomy and self-regulation capabilities.
· Punitive Measures: Disproportionate penalties for non-compliance, including imprisonment, create an environment of fear rather than collaboration.
· Lack of Consultation: The bill was introduced without adequate stakeholder engagement, sidelining the voices of the very organizations it seeks to regulate.

Leah Mitaba, Executive Director of the Zambia Council for Social Development, underscores the need to have laws that promote collaboration and transparency, not control and coercion: “Zambia is a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. These legal frameworks call on member states to avoid enacting laws that restrict civic space or hinder fundamental freedoms, including expression, association, and assembly. Unfortunately, the proposed 2024 Bill risks undermining these commitments. Therefore, the government’s decision to initiate consultations is a step in the right direction. It is hoped that this dialogue will lead to a self-regulatory framework that fosters the vibrancy and effectiveness of civil society organizations in Zambia.”

Additional concerns: cybersecurity and Anti-Terrorism legislation

In addition to the NGO Bill 2024, three new bills—the Cyber Security Bill 2024, Cyber Crimes Bill 2024, and Anti-Terrorism Bill—have been introduced and fast-tracked to parliament. While the stated objectives of these bills are to safeguard national security, combat cybercrime, and address terrorism, their provisions raise serious concerns about human rights, democratic governance, and constitutional compliance.

Key concerns raised by Zambian CSOs include:

· Broad Surveillance Powers: The bills grant the government sweeping authority over digital infrastructure and allow for the interception of communications without sufficient safeguards, raising significant concerns about privacy and data protection.
· Vague and Overbroad Definitions: Ambiguities in the language of the bills risk the criminalization of legitimate CSO activities, as well as broader civic engagement, advocacy, and free speech.
· Continuity of Authoritarian Practices: CSOs have criticized the UPND administration for rushing the legislative process and sidelining public participation, echoing practices heavily condemned under the previous PF administration.

In a joint statement, Zambian CSOs called on Members of Parliament to reject these bills in their current forms and urged the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration to withdraw them for broader consultation and review. “Laws protecting Zambia’s security must also protect Zambia’s democracy and rights,” the statement emphasizes.

CSOs also highlighted that these laws, if enacted, would undermine constitutional protections and set a dangerous precedent for future legislation. They have appealed to Zambian citizens to demand accountability from their representatives, warning that these laws will shape the future of freedoms, privacy, and the ability to speak out in the country.

What do the bills mean for civil society?

The concerns raised by Zambian CSOs go beyond the immediate implications of the proposed bill. At stake is the broader enabling environment for civil society—a combination of legal, institutional, financial and social factors that allow CSOs to operate effectively and contribute meaningfully to development efforts and community support. This includes ensuring:

· Protection of Fundamental Freedoms: Safeguarding the rights to freedom of association, expression, and assembly.
· Access to Resources: Providing CSOs with the resources, capacities, tools and support they need to pursue their goals without undue restrictions.
· Inclusive Decision-Making: Facilitating CSOs’ participation in shaping policies and the communities they represent.

“Many CSOs are caught in a web of increasingly complex regulations that limit their ability to operate freely. From endless bureaucratic delays to arbitrary decisions and denial of permits, these tactics slow civil society organisations down and drain their resources. Many are denied access to critical funding, while also facing stringent reporting requirements from donors, creating financial insecurity. This results in various forms of economic and emotional pressures,” said Forus director Sarah Strack in a recent article.

Next steps: what civil society is calling for

Zambian CSOs have consistently demonstrated their commitment to transparency and accountability through self-regulation initiatives. They have called on the government to build on these efforts rather than impose restrictive measures that could stifle civic engagement.

Zambian CSOs are calling on the government to demonstrate its commitment to democratic governance by:

· Revisiting the Bills: Conduct an independent assessment of these laws to ensure compliance with constitutional standards and democratic principles.
· Protecting the Environment of Civil Society Organisations: Ensuring that any regulatory measures enhance, rather than restrict, the ability of CSOs to carry out their work.
· Supporting Self-Regulation: Building on existing self-regulation efforts to promote transparency and accountability within the sector.
· Broaden Consultation: Engage with civil society, legal experts, and the public to develop balanced legislation that protects both national security and human rights.
· Uphold Accountability: Recognize that legislative authority derives from the people and must reflect their needs and constitutional values.

With the UN Special Rapporteur visiting Zambia in January 2025 there is a call now to bring these issues to light and advocate for meaningful reforms. Zambia’s civil society calls on national and international partners to stand in solidarity with their efforts to protect the enabling environment.

Leah Mitaba Executive Director of the Zambia Council for Social Development and Bibbi Abruzzini Communications Coordinator at Forus.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Submissions from Papua New Guinea laid bear the country's diversity and heightened vulnerability to climate change. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
THE HAGUE & NAIROBI, Dec 6 2024 (IPS)

Kenya agrees with many UN member states testifying before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the law of international responsibility should hold countries legally responsible for major damage to the global climate system.

“Responsible states must cease wrongful acts or remedy any omissions harmful to the climate system as well as make reparations for all damage caused by their breach. Such reparation may take the form of compensation for loss and damage. Of course, the court need not definitively pronounce on compensation in the context of historical omissions,” said Phoebe Okowa, a Kenyan lawyer and Professor of Public International Law.

“However, this is a precious opportunity to integrate the corpus juris (body of law) of climate change treaty law and customary international law, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, in a way that will assist states in establishing workable frameworks for compensation.”

Okowa was speaking on behalf of Kenya at the ICJ, which is one of 98 countries and 12 organizations participating in ongoing public hearings, contributing to the UN top court’s advisory opinion on the obligation of states to prevent climate change and ensure the protection of the environment for present and future generations.

The ongoing landmark climate change case dates to September 2021, when the Pacific Island of Vanuatu announced its intention to seek an advisory opinion from the ICJ. Vanuatu supported the efforts of a youth group—the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change—who were concerned about the vulnerability of small island developing states in the region to climate change.

Vanuatu then lobbied other countries to support this initiative and formed the core group of UN member states to take the initiative forward to the General Assembly.

In pursuit of this advisory, Ambassador Halima Mucheke on behalf of Kenya said the court “has had numerous participants stress the existential nature of the threat caused by climate change. In response, this court must bring clarity to the law, informed by the perspectives of developing states, particularly those in Africa, where temperatures are rising the fastest.”

“We believe that a clarification of the existing legal obligations will provide much-needed guidance to states, as well as the impetus for the next phase of political negotiations. Kenya specifically invites the court to draw on equitable principles reflected in climate change treaties, such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities,” she said.

Fred Sarufa, Permanent Representative of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea to the UN, said in the country’s nearly 50 years of nationhood, this was their first appearance before ICJ because climate change can no longer be ignored. He then proceeded to illustrate the significant issues at stake.

Prof. Phoebe Okowa invited the court to integrate the corpus juris of climate change treaty law towards a workable framework for compensation. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

“Papua New Guinea is home to and the custodian of a diverse geophysical and geomorphic landscape, including 20,197 kilometres of coastline, 40,000 square kilometres of coral reefs, one of the highest known levels of marine biological diversity in the world, around 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity in less than 1 percent of the world’s total land area, and the world’s third largest expanse of pristine tropical rainforest, covering 77.8 percent of our total land area,” Sarufa told the court.

Stressing that Papua New Guinea’s biodiversity is directly linked to its unsurpassed linguistic diversity, with over 850 spoken languages, the most in the world. Pila Niningi, the Minister for Justice and Attorney General of Papua New Guinea, discussed the numerous ways that climate change is wreaking havoc.

These include “forcing people to abandon their ancestral lands and territories, altered landscapes and seascapes, disrupted livelihoods, and led to civil unrest among traditional landowners, fighting over increasingly limited land and space. It has also endangered food crops, water and security, and the collapse of traditional and cultural practices and indigenous systems of governance,” Niningi said.

Rising seas have forced the islanders from northeast Bougainville and the people of Veraibari in the Gulf province of Papua New Guinea to abandon their ancestral lands because it engulfed their homes and schools and inundated what remains of the arable land.

This led Papua New Guinea to join other Pacific nations in adopting, within the framework of the Pacific Islands Forum, the Boe Declaration on Regional Security, which affirms, among others, that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security, and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific.

On her part, Kenya invited the court to confirm that significant financial assistance and technology transfer are binding legal obligations and not matters of discretion.

Professor Dr. Makane Moïse Mbengue from the African Union told the Court the matter on hand was about climate justice, as “climate change is a phenomenon that has not been caused by all states equally, and nor will all states suffer its effects equally.”

He emphasized that science serves as the cornerstone of climate justice for states, peoples, and individuals affected by climate change, underscoring the necessity of protecting the climate system and demanding responsibility from states that have caused harm to it. In this context, he said the African Union welcomes the court’s engagement with experts from the IPCC prior to the commencement of the hearings.

“The African Union notes efforts of certain states, albeit a minority, to negate science and trivialize the ordinary meaning of the terms of the request (for an advisory opinion). Their repeated calls for undue caution now, and in their written submissions, are transparent attempts to dilute the very object of the present proceedings. The African Union respectfully urges the court to dismiss these unfounded arguments,” he observed.

Further inviting the court to “reject the flawed argument, which was repeated again this week, that the relevant obligations are reduced solely to the so-called specialists of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. The same arguments were tried, tested, and defeated before they lost. Nonetheless, they should find no fertile ground before the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, whose advisory opinions have consistently contributed to maintaining the systemic coherence of the international legal system.”

Mbengue said that if the court didn’t say who was responsible, it would be the same as a situation of non-liquet, which means there is no law that applies, and states would be free to keep damaging the climate system. Such an outcome could hardly have been the intention of the General Assembly in seeking this advisory opinion.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Rising seas due to climate change threaten the future of Papua New Guinea, a country known for its significant linguistic and biodiversity. Already, this has forced people to abandon their ancestral lands and caused civil unrest as landowners fight over increasingly limited land and space.

The Wickremesinghe government was unnerved by the huge attendance at NPP public rallies.

By Neville de Silva
LONDON, Dec 6 2024 (IPS)

On 26 December 2004 a powerful Asian tsunami swept over many of Sri Lanka’s coastal provinces, killing thousands of people and wildlife, devastating habitats and even washing away a trainload of passengers far from the rail tracks.

Almost 20 years later, on November 14 this year, another tsunami struck, sweeping across the country in an unprecedented wave that mesmerised many of the 22 million population.

But this was a tsunami of a different kind. It took much of the nation by surprise, causing a tectonic shift in the country’s post-independence political landscape and traditional ways of governance as it dispensed with the corrupt old guard.

The November 14 parliamentary election uprooted the long surviving ruling class and the comprador capitalism of the old political parties that had dominated Sri Lanka’s politics since independence in 1948.

If the 2004 tsunami was geological and physical in nature, and the damage it wreaked was within the country, this one was essentially political and its impact was felt not only in neighbouring nations but far beyond, particularly in the western world, though for different reasons.

November’s election was won by a political alliance formed just a few years earlier, which swept aside Sri Lanka’s major parties that had dominated politics for over 60 years. And on its way to gaining power, it made history.

MAN OF THE SOIL: Anura Kumara Dissanayake

This is not only because the alliance won 159 seats, an unprecedented majority of over two-thirds of the seats in a 225-member legislature – the first time this has happened since the introduction of proportional representation decades ago.

Nor is it because it won 21 of the country’s 22 district constituencies; nor even because it was the first Sinhala-Buddhist party from the country’s south to win parliamentary seats in the predominantly minority-Tamil constituencies in the north, including the Tamil heartland of Jaffna, the east and the mainly Tamil plantation areas in the central hills, defeating long-established Tamil political parties that perpetuated Tamil nationalist politics.

This nascent election king-maker that made political history in November was a Left-leaning alliance of small political parties, trade unions, civil society organisations and activists named the National People’s Power (NPP). It threatened to oust the decaying and corruption-ridden politics of the past and implant an entirely new political and governance system.

Today, for the first time in its history, Sri Lanka has a government led solely by a Leftist alliance.

The NPP that emerged as a political party in 2019, led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, (popularly called AKD), a member of one-time Marxist party Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP- People’s Liberation Front), which he had joined as a student, contested the presidential election that year but gained a paltry 3 per cent of the vote. The following year, the NPP managed to scrape together 3 seats in the 225-member legislature.

It was scornfully named by its rightist parliamentary opponents and critics as ‘3 per cent’ for its poor electoral showing at both elections, which swept the Rajapaksa clan into power, the country’s most powerful political family, with one sibling as president, another as prime minister and still another as finance minister.

Yet in a remarkable change of events that shook the country’s political establishment, a party that only five years earlier had been derided and dismissed as a minor nuisance has risen to the pinnacle of power.

The NPP’s opponents label them as violent Marxists

Its capturing of executive and legislative power with relative ease in an unforeseen peaceful democratic transformation has resonated in nearby countries, some of which face civil turmoil and upheavals at home.

It is this transmogrification of an alliance virtually discarded by voters five years earlier as a political nonentity which has reduced to virtually zero long surviving parties with seasoned leaders and politicians. When the nation awoke the next morning to the news, it seemed like a fairytale.

But history intervened between the elections of 2019 and 2024. This helped the NPP’s slowly gathering public support to transform the one-time Marxist party into a democratic socialist progressive political entity, despite the fact that the earlier JVP had been involved in armed insurrections, the second in the late 1980s, which was virtually forced on it by a pro-western rightist government determined to crush democratic dissent.

Although the JVP was the hardcore party at the centre of the now emerging NPP led by Dissanayake, a progressive socialist determined to transform Sri Lanka into a people-centred democracy, 20-odd other organisations that formed the NPP were more inclined to follow the Dissanayake ideology.

In 2022, public protests against the then Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency began to spread, due to his unbelievably incongruous and inconceivable policies, which led to shortages of food and domestic essentials like fuel. Mass protests erupted in Colombo and protestors camped opposite the presidential secretariat in their thousands for months.

It was a grand opportunity for the progressive democratic NPP, which has been calling for the abolition of the executive presidency and a return to the parliamentary system, to join the ‘Aragalaya’ protest movement and establish its credentials as a people’s movement determined to dispel the old order and build a new Sri Lanka.

Unable to quell the public protests, President Rajapaksa fled the country, having earlier appointed a political opponent but still one of the ruling class, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as prime minister. Wickremesinghe was later elected president by the Rajapaksa-family led parliamentary majority, as the constitution allowed it.

Wickremesinghe’s high-handed policies, backed by the military and police to crush public dissent, and his deal with the IMF that led to more austerity and increasing poverty, promising economic prosperity only in future years, drove the people increasingly to oppose his policies and authoritarianism.

Hailing from a remote village in rural Sri Lanka and from a poor family living in a hamlet, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, like many of his comrades from the JVP and later the NPP, is a genuine man of the soil, the first such leader Sri Lanka has ever had.

Having struggled to educate himself in village schools and later at a provincial government school, AKD nevertheless managed to enter university and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics – a rare achievement for a boy of his background.

Had President Wickremesinghe had an opportunity to postpone national elections, he would have done so, just as he did the local government elections during his interim presidency, fearing public defeat. But the constitution stood in his way.

Seeing the massive attendance at the NPP’s public rallies, the Wickremesinghe government, and others expecting victory at parliamentary elections, panicked. They started branding the NPP as Marxists and insurrectionists who had engaged in armed violence and were likely to do so again. They demonised the NPP and created a nightmare image of a country under an authoritarian regime.

But such attempts to scare-monger the Sri Lankan people and potential foreign investors failed, due to Sri Lanka’s important geopolitical position in the busy Indian Ocean.

Yet this has not stopped the NPP’s opponents labelling them as violent Marxists, even as they forget their own past running armed paramilitary groups responsible for the killing and torture of hundreds of civilians in the late 1980s.

Those who read some of the Indian media and western news reports will not forget how they came to name the NPP as the country’s Marxist government, and continue to do so. However, over 60 per cent of Sri Lankan voters turned their backs on these nightmare visions, whether they came from local political leaders and their loyal press, the Indian or western media, which was likely hoping for a return of pro-western politicians and the continuation of corrupt regimes.

They now fear that the NPP will pursue the corrupt and bring them to justice for robbing state assets, as it has promised to do.

While the NPP’s immediate priorities are to continue dealing with the IMF to rescue the economy and other domestic issues, foreign policy does not appear to be at the top of its list. But, caught between India and China as ever, major issues lie ahead in this regard, which the NPP cannot afford to ignore for long.

Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who held senior roles in Hong Kong at The Standard and worked in London for Gemini News Service. He has been a correspondent for the foreign media including the New York Times and Le Monde. More recently he was Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner in London

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Announcement of Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Drought Resilience Partnership Initiative. Credit: Anastasia Rodopoulou/IISD/ENB|

By Stella Paul
RIYADH & HYDERABAD, Dec 6 2024 (IPS)

While many delegates at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16) hope that this could be the convention’s own Paris moment—referring to the historic Paris agreement inked by UNFCCC signatories—however, this hedges heavily on the UN parties’ seriousness to combat drought, desertification and land degradation.

UNCCD COP 16, themed “Our Land and Our Future,” is currently underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

One of the biggest expectations from the conference is a landmark decision on achieving a complete halt to land degradation by 2030. The other expectations are mobilizing enough resources to restore all degraded land and achieve total resilience against droughts.

Global Land Degradation at COP

Degradation affects 2 billion hectares of land globally. This is more than the total land area of Russia, the largest country on earth. This affects 3.2 billion people—twice the population of entire Africa. The degraded land area is also continuously expanding as each year an additional 100 million ha get degraded—mostly due to the impacts of climate change such as a drought and desertification. With a business-as-usual approach, by 2050, 6 billion ha will be degraded, warns UNCCD, which is urging the parties of the ongoing COP to take urgent action to halt this.

“Every second, somewhere in the world, we lose an equivalent of four football fields to land degradation. We must act now to restore our lands. They are the foundation of everything. For the first time, through our UNCCD reporting, we have evidence-based estimates of the alarming state of land degradation. COP16 is about our reliance on lands, but also our resilience,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, the Executive Secretary of UNCCD, at the opening ceremony of the COP.

“The scientific evidence is unambiguous: the way we manage our land today will directly determine our future on earth. Land restoration is the first and foremost foundation of our economy, security and humanity. We must restore our land now,” Thiaw said to an audience of party delegates, civil society groups, women’s rights organizations, business and finance experts, members of other UN agencies and youths.

Responding to the UN call, Saudi Arabia, the COP16 host, has promised to deliver strong action.

On Wednesday, December 4, the COP observed “Land Day.” Speaking at the event, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, UNCCD COP16 President and Saudi Arabia Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, said, “Through our Presidency of COP16, we will work to make this COP a launchpad to strengthen public and private partnerships and create a roadmap to rehabilitate 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.”

Finance Gap: Common Challenges of all UN COPs

On Dec 3, the second day of COP, the UNCCD released its financial needs assessment report, detailing the latest funding requirements to address land degradation, drought and desertification. The findings revealed a sizeable funding gap for international land restoration efforts. Based on UNCCD targets, the required annual investments for 2025–2030 are estimated at USD 355 billion. However, the projected investments for the same period amount to only USD 77 billion per year, leaving USD 278 billion that requires mobilization to meet the UNCCD objectives.

In the past, UNCCD’s finance mobilization efforts included the creation of a Land Degradation Neutrality Fund (LDN Fund), a financial mechanism to support the achievement of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)—a target under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 15.3). But, similar to the climate change COPs and the biodiversity COPs, UNCCD’s LDN fund is underfunded and has only received USD 208 million.

However, on the second day of COP16, the Arab Coordination Group pledged USD 10 billion to combat land degradation, desertification and drought. The donation would go to the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, an initiative launched by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has also already announced a donation of USD 150 million to operationalize the initiative. The additional backing took place during the Ministerial Dialogue on Finance, part of the high-level segment at COP16 in Riyadh, aimed at unlocking international funding from the private and public sectors.

The Missing Private Sector Investment

The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership will also focus on unlocking new financial mechanisms, such as credit, equity financing, insurance products, and grants, to enhance drought resilience.

With over USD 12 billion pledged for major land restoration and drought resilience initiatives in just the first two days, COP16 in Riyadh is already bringing more hopes than the biodiversity (UNCBD) and climate change (UNFCCC) COPs.

Dr. Osama Faqeeha, Deputy Minister for Environment, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and Advisor to the UNCCD COP16 Presidency, said: “I hope this is just the beginning, and over the coming days and weeks, we see further contributions from international private and public sector partners that further amplify the impact of vital drought resilience and land restoration initiatives.”

However, the convention has still not been able to unlock any significant private funding, which has been identified by many as a huge challenge in the path of achieving total land restoration. According to the COP Presidency, only 6 percent of the private investors and businesses have invested in land-related initiatives and the funding gap in the UNCCD is a ‘worrying blackhole.”

“If the international community is to deliver land restoration at the scale required, then the private sector simply must ramp up investment. As the latest UNCCD findings show, there remains a worrying blackhole in the funds needed to combat land degradation, desertification and drought,” said Faqeeha.

A Gender-Just Financing Solution: Can COP16 Deliver?

Following a series of events this year at the UN General Assembly, the CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia and COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the ‘Rio Convention Synergies’ dialogue also took place on Land Day, highlighting developments made during the 2024 Rio Trio events. The event discussed the interconnected issues driving land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change and how to find common solutions.

Most participants highlighted the disproportionate impact of drought and land degradation on women and their urgent requirement for access to finance.

Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Land Management, Tarja Halonen, UNCCD Land Ambassador and Co-Chair of the UNCCD Gender Caucus, said, “Women and girls in rural communities bear the greatest burden of desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD), and their empowerment is crucial for addressing urgent land challenges.”

AlFadley noted that women’s empowerment enhances sustainable land management (SLM) and the preservation of ecosystems, as well as long-term resilience against DLDD.

Recognizing the challenges women face to mobilize resources for their own land restoration initiatives often due to lack of capacity and connections, Neema Lugangira, Member of Parliament, Tanzania, advised the COP16 Gender Caucus to connect with parliamentarians in the global climate finance chapter of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s parliamentary network.

“It will be good if the UNCCD can have a land restoration parliamentary group,” she said.

Speaking at a high-level interactive dialogue, Odontuya Saldan, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Mongolia, which will host COP17 in 2026, proposed establishing a global coalition of future rangelands and pastoralism solutions focused on gender equality and the role of youth, children, and women. She said Mongolia would make gender a priority at COP17, where the key theme will be rangelands and pastoralism.

What decisions COP16 makes to provide women land restorers and drought warriors with greater access to land finance is still up in the air.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the UN, is holding public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. Mr. Nawaf Salam, President of the court, is preciding. Credit: ICJ

By Umar Manzoor Shah
THE HAGUE & SRINAGAR, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

Developing nations should not bear the brunt of the climate crisis caused by the industrialized world’s historical emissions. This was the resounding message as the Solomon Islands, India, and Iran, among others, presented their cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The submissions from three nations—Solomon Islands, India, and Iran—converged on one critical point: climate change is a global crisis requiring collective action. The Solomon Islands highlighted the intrinsic link between climate justice and human rights, urging urgent global efforts to protect vulnerable populations.

At the request of Vanuatu, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of UN member states in preventing climate change and ensuring the protection of the environment for present and future generations. While its advisory opinion will not be enforceable, the court will advise on the legal consequences for member states that have caused significant harm, particularly to small island developing states. Hearings are ongoing at the court in The Hague.

India stressed the need for international cooperation based on the principles of equity and the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDRRC); however, it cautioned against any overreach that could compromise developmental priorities. Iran agreed, asserting that effective climate action depends on the fair treatment of developing nations and the removal of barriers to cooperation.

Solomon Islands: A Cry for Justice
Representatives Attorney General John Muria, Junior and counsel Harj Narulla from the Solomon Islands elaborated on the threats posed by rising sea levels, urging the ICJ to affirm the moral and legal obligations of industrialized nations to support vulnerable states.

“Our people face displacement, loss of livelihoods, and threats to their cultural heritage, yet we have contributed negligibly to global emissions,” said Muria. He called for the court to prioritize the principle of “climate justice,” asserting that nations historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions bear a greater obligation to mitigate climate impacts and assist affected countries.

The Solomon Islands demanded enhanced financial and technological support for small island and least-developed states. They argued that this assistance is not an act of charity but a legal and ethical necessity rooted in international law.

India Pleads for Equity and Differentiated Responsibilities
India’s representative, Luther Rangreji, said that the complexities of climate change as a global challenge disproportionately affect developing nations. Rangreji highlighted the inherent inequities, noting that developing nations, like India, contribute less to emissions but bear the brunt of climate impacts.

“Developed countries, historically the largest contributors to climate change, have the resources to address it. Yet, they demand that developing nations limit their energy use. This is inequity at its core,” Rangreji said.

India’s submission reinforced the principle of CBDRRC as enshrined in international agreements such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Rangreji said that developing nations’ developmental priorities, including poverty eradication, must not be compromised in the name of climate action.

Legal Frameworks and Unmet Financial Obligations
Both India and the Solomon Islands highlighted the necessity for robust legal frameworks to address climate change. The Solomon Islands referenced previous ICJ cases, such as the Pulp Mills and Nuclear Weapons advisory opinions, to underline states’ obligations to prevent transboundary harm.

India, while advocating for the frameworks established by the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement, cautioned against imposing new obligations. Rangreji emphasized the significance of fulfilling current commitments, specifically the USD 100 billion annual climate finance pledge from developed nations, a promise that provided minimal benefits to developing countries.

“USD 100 billion pledged at the Copenhagen COP in 2009 by developed country parties and the doubling of the contribution to the adaptation fund have not yet been translated into any concrete actions,” Rangreji said.

“Climate finance is not charity; it is an obligation.”

He argued that developing nations can scale up climate actions only if adequately supported.

Furthermore, India provided data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to highlight disparities. Rangreji noted that developed nations, despite comprising only 16 percent of the global population, contributed 57 percent of cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2019. This historical responsibility, India argued, necessitates a differential approach to climate obligations.

Similarly, the Solomon Islands stated that small island nations bear a disproportionate burden of climate impacts. “Justice demands that those who benefited most from industrialization should bear the greater burden of rectifying its consequences,” stated their representative.

Iran Urges Equity and International Cooperation
Sayyid Ali Mousavi, representing the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasized the principles of equity, CBDRRC, and international cooperation. Mousavi emphasized the significant challenges that developing nations like Iran, despite their limited emissions, face due to climate change.

Mousavi criticized unilateral coercive measures imposed by developed nations, arguing that these measures hinder the transfer of financial support and technology critical for climate mitigation in developing countries. He called on the ICJ to recognize such restrictions as violations of international cooperation principles.

“Developed countries must lead in reducing emissions and supporting developing nations through financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity building,” Mousavi stated, referencing the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement as foundational frameworks.

Iran’s representative stated that the CBDRRC principle is significant, as it differentiates obligations based on historical emissions and current capacities. Mousavi argued that developed nations’ leadership in addressing climate change should include financial contributions, technology transfer, and capacity-building efforts for developing countries.

“Without access to technology and resources, developing countries cannot effectively participate in global climate mitigation efforts,” Mousavi told the court.

He criticized trade policies such as the carbon border adjustment mechanism, describing them as disproportionate measures that unfairly burden developing economies.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

The International Court of Justice in the Hague hearings centered on emissions and equity during the fourth day of testimony into the obligations of UN member states in preventing climate change and ensuring the protection of the environment for present and future generations.

Two women and a child in a displacement shelter in Sudan. Displaced women and children are the most vulnerable populations. Credit: UNICEF/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfatih

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

As the Sudanese Civil War continues to ravage the people of Sudan, conditions for internally displaced persons grow more dire every day. The situation in Sudan is currently the biggest displacement crisis in the world. Famine, violence, and gender-based violence are rampant. Described as “an invisible crisis” by the United Nations (UN) new emergency relief chief, Tom Fletcher, many believe that the humanitarian response has been largely ineffective in tackling the urgent and growing scale of needs.

The latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimate that approximately 11.5 million people have fled their homes since the wake of the war. Roughly 8.5 million people have been dispersed throughout Sudan’s borders while 3 million have fled to neighbouring nations such as Chad, Egypt, and Ethiopia. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) mass displacement has given way to one of the world’s biggest educational crises. It is estimated that 90 percent of Sudan’s 19 million school-aged children lack access to any form of formal education.

Sudanese displacement camps have seen a steep rise of violence over the past few days. On December 1-2, intense gunfire and shelling was reported around the Zamzam camp, one of Sudan’s largest shelters, located south of El Fasher, North Darfur. According to humanitarian organizations, at least five people were killed and eighteen were injured. This led to the evacuation of a hospital within the camp and suspension of medical services.

In a report released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami condemned the attack and urged for stronger protections to be established for civilians.

“I am deeply concerned by reports of the indiscriminate shelling of Zamzam camp, health clinics, and shelters of displaced people. Their protection is paramount. Civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be a target,” said Nkweta-Salami.

The UN has described conditions in the Zamzam camp as being at a “breaking point.” Heightened violence has exacerbated already dire conditions for the nearly 500,000 displaced persons residing in this camp. Health clinics, residential areas, and the humanitarian response has been severely strained due to the sheer scale of suffering. According to a press release from the UN, famine has been persistent in the Zamzam camp since August 2024, making it the only location globally where famine has been declared this year.

The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has been on the frontlines assisting displaced persons facing severe injuries or war-related conditions. On December 1, MSF received eight injured people, including children as young as four years old. These patients faced conditions such as chest trauma and bone fractures.

MSF reports that thousands of children are currently being treated for malnutrition and starvation. A series of studies were conducted to assess the mortality rate of 400 households in the Zamzam camp. Out of 46,000 children, it is reported that approximately 30 percent are struggling with acute malnutrition, while 8 percent are facing severe malnutrition. Furthermore, 10 percent of children under five years old struggle with severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.

The World Food Programme has called for a cessation in violence to allow humanitarian aid to reach affected communities. “We’ve been pushing for months to get to these communities. We have the food. We have the trucks. We have the staff on board to ensure this aid gets there. Now, we need all warring parties and armed groups to allow this vital food and nutrition to arrive safely,” said Alex Marianelli, WFP’s Operations Deputy Country Director in Sudan.

Additionally, gender-based violence remains a pervasive issue plaguing displaced communities all across Sudan. According to statistics from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), approximately 65 percent of all women and girls experience sexual, physical, and gender-based violence in their lifetime. Sudan also ranks as one of the nations with the highest number of reported cases of intimate partner violence.

“Every day countless South Sudanese women and girls endure unthinkable suffering due to gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence,” said South Sudanese Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Aya Warille. “These acts are more than mere statistics. They are profound violations of human rights that fracture the very fabric of our society. They rob our mothers, sisters and daughters of their dignity and place an immense burden on our future. This is not just a women issue, it is a societal crisis that speaks to the core of our humanity.”

Sudanese civilians and humanitarian officials have described aid efforts as being inadequate, relative to the massive, nationwide scale of suffering. Twenty years ago, we had presidents and prime ministers engaged to stop atrocities in Darfur. There are today many times as many lives at stake – this is the world’s worst crisis — but we are met with deafening silence. We must wake up the world before famine engulfs a generation of children,” said Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary General Jan Egeland.

Despite many believing that Sudan has been largely “ignored” by the international community, the UN reiterates that Sudan is a pressing concern for them. “This crisis is not invisible to the UN, to our humanitarians on the front-line risking and losing their lives to help the Sudanese people,” said Fletcher.

Reasons for the limited humanitarian response can be attributed to widespread social insecurity that has been exacerbated by violence and an overall lack of funding. Mobility and aid deliveries have experienced increasingly common restrictions and blockages. Additionally, the UN’s goal of 2.7 billion USD for the humanitarian response in Sudan has only been 57 percent funded. This poses significant challenges in sustaining life-saving aid efforts in the face of a crisis that deepens in severity on a daily basis.

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Christian Thierfelder, Principal Scientist at CIMMYT, poses in a field that is being tested for conservation agriculture at Henderson Research Station, Harare, Zimbabwe. Credit, Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

On the dusty plains of Shamva District in Zimbabwe, Wilfred Mudavanhu’s maize field defies drought.

With the El Niño-induced drought gripping several countries in Southern Africa, Mudavanhu’s maize crop is flourishing, thanks to an innovative farming method that helps keep moisture in the soil and promotes soil health.

Once harvesting just 1.5 tonnes of maize (30-50 kg bags) each season, Mudavanhu’s harvest jumped to 2.5 tonnes of maize (50 bags) in the 2023/2024 cropping season.

Mudavanhu is one of many farmers in Zimbabwe embracing conservation agriculture, a method that prioritizes minimal soil disturbance, crop rotation, and soil moisture conservation. The practice is complemented by other methods such as timely control of weeds, mulching, and farming on a small plot to gain high yields.

Researchers say the conservation agriculture method is proving a lifeline for farmers grappling with climate change.

For more than 20 years, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has promoted research on conservation agriculture in Southern Africa with the aim of getting farmers to increase their crop yields.

Under conventional farming, smallholder maize yields have often been below 1 tonne per hectare in Zimbabwe, according to researchers. Adopting CA practices has led to yield increases of up to 90 percent. While in Malawi farmers have experienced maize yields increased by up to 400 percent, crops are integrated with nitrogen-fixing trees such as Faidherbia albida. In Zambia, maize yields under conventional farming have been at 1.9 tonnes per hectare, and these have increased to 4.7 tonnes per hectare where farmers have used conservation agriculture practices.

But beyond high yields, conservation agriculture saves moisture and enhances soil health, offering farmers a long-term solution to the growing problem of soil degradation, a looming threat in the face of climate change, researchers said.

“As the climate crisis deepens, CA has become essential for Southern African farmers, offering a resilient, climate-smart approach to boost productivity and withstand climate change impacts, reinforcing sustainable food security,” Christian Thierfelder, a principal scientist at CIMMYT, told IPS, explaining that CA could be a game changer for the rainfed cropping system in the region.

About 3 million farmers in Southern Africa are practicing CA, Thierfelder said, adding: “The more climate change hits as seen in recent droughts, the more the farmers will adopt CA because the traditional way of doing agriculture will not always work anymore.”

The use of machines is attracting smallholder farmers to adopt conservation agriculture. CIMMYT has researched using machines suitable for smallholder CA systems.

The machines have been found to increase intercropping methods farmers use while addressing the challenges of high labour demands associated with conservation agriculture.

Traditionally, farmers spend hours digging planting basins, a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. The basin digger has mechanized the land preparation stage, reducing the number of people needed to dig the basins.

Thierfelder said CIMMYT has partnered with registered service providers in Zimbabwe and Zambia, who offer mechanization services that improve farming efficiency and reduce labour demands. One such innovation, the basin digger—a cost-effective, low-energy machine—reduces labour by up to 90 percent.

Cosmas Chari, a farmer and service provider in Shamva, used to spend a day digging basins for planting, but now he takes an hour using the basin digger.

Mudavanhu became a mechanization service provider after integrating CA with mechanization. As a service provider, Mudavanhu hires out a two-wheeled tractor, a sheller, and a ripper to other farmers practicing CA.

Similarly, another farmer, Advance Kandimiri, is also a service provider practicing CA.

“I started being a mechanization service provider in 2022 and adopted CA using mechanization,” said Kandimiri, who bought a tractor, a sheller, and a two-row planter.

“Conservation agriculture is more profitable than conventional farming that I was doing before I learned about CA,” said Kandimiri.

Data from CIMMYT’s research indicates that farmers adopting CA practices can earn extra income of approximately USD 368 per hectare as a result of getting higher yields and reduced input costs.

Conservation Agriculture in the Region

Farmers across Southern Africa have found success after adopting CA practices with remarkable results.

In 2011, during a visit to Monze in Zambia’s Southern Province, Gertrude Banda observed the significant benefits of CA firsthand. Farmers practicing CA for over seven years demonstrated how planting crops without tillage using an animal traction ripper led to reduced labour in land preparation and improved crop yields.

Banda says she was motivated by this experience to adopt CA on her own 9-hectare farm, where she grows cowpeas, groundnuts, and soybeans. She practices crop rotation, alternating maize with various legumes to enhance soil fertility and improve crop yields. Additionally, she uses groundnut and cowpea residues for livestock feed. She earned about USD 5,000 from selling her soya crop.

“Today, my entire farm follows CA principles,” Banda said. “All my crops are planted in rip lines, and I rotate maize with various legumes to maintain soil health.”

Over 65,000 farmers in Malawi and 50,000 in Zambia have adopted CA, according to CIMMYT, whose research shows that farmer education, training, and technical guidance are vital for farmers to make the shift.

However, widespread adoption of conservation agriculture has remained low despite its acknowledged advantages. Smallholder farmers face challenges in accessing inputs and equipment, said Hambulo Ngoma, an agricultural economist at CIMMYT.

Besides, farmers have limited knowledge of effective weed control and struggle with short-term yield uncertainties, which can discourage consistent practice, Ngoma said.

“While CA has proven its worth, adoption rates are still relatively low across Southern Africa,” Ngoma said, adding, “Many farmers lack the resources to invest in the tools and training required for effective implementation.”

Fruitful Partnerships to Promote Conservation Agriculture

Blessing Mhlanga, a cropping systems agronomist with CIMMYT’s Sustainable Agrifood Systems program, said the success of CA goes beyond technology and techniques but is hinged on education and including CA principles in national policies. In Zambia, for instance, CIMMYT, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), helped design a mechanization strategy that has paved the way for mechanized CA to be incorporated into government-led agricultural programs.

“Technologies like intensification with Gliricidia, a fast-growing nitrogen fixing tree, strip cropping, and permanently raised beds are now part of Zambia’s national agriculture agenda,” explained Mhlanga, who noted that the adoption of CA by smallholder farmers can be transformative, particularly in regions reliant on rainfed cropping.

Mhlanga said with more than 250 million hectares of land currently under CA globally and adoption rates of the CA practices increasing by 10 million hectares annually, the future of CA is promising. However, much work remains to be done in providing smallholder farmers like Mudavanhu with the right tools and knowledge to adopt conservation agriculture fully.

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By Rabab Fatima
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

The conclusion of the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) brings with it a blend of urgency, frustration, and a glimmer of hope for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

These nations, responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, suffer disproportionally from the devastating impacts of climate change.

Yet, for these vulnerable countries, the outcomes of COP29 fell short. While there was progress in certain areas, the agreements reached do not match the scale of the challenges. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres rightly underlined, COP29 provides a foundation, but it demands urgent and ambitious action to build upon it.

Rabab Fatima

Climate Finance: The Lifeline for vulnerable nations

One of the COP29’s pivotal outcome was the agreement to achieve a global climate finance goal of at least USD 300 billion annually by 2035. While this amount does not address the needs of the most vulnerable nations, we must ensure it is delivered in full.

While COP29 left ambiguity in the exact source of these funds, between now and 2035, we should seek to establish aspirational targets for amounts flowing from the established financial instruments under the UNFCCC-such as the Adaptation Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund, and the Special Climate Change Fund.

We must also closely track the amounts for adaptation, and to the extent possible ensure that these finance flows are from public sources, and grant-based resources or highly concessional means.

While COP29 did not set targets for the most vulnerable nations, systematic reporting will be critical to ensuring that resources reach those who need them most.

The formulation and implementation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are critical for LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS to respond to escalating climate threats. COP29’s establishment of a support programme for NAP implementation in LDCs is a positive step. However, swift and efficient operationalization is essential.

Loss and Damage: From promises to reality

Progress on the Loss and Damage Fund was a key highlight of COP29. Turning pledges into tangible contributions is now the priority. Stepping up capitalization and rapid and effective operationalization of this Fund are critical to addressing irreversible losses in lives and livelihoods caused by climate change.

Mitigation and Energy Transition

While COP29’s mitigation outcomes were modest, the urgency for emissions reductions cannot be overstated. According to the 2024 UNEP Emissions Gap Report, emissions must fall by 42 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels to stay on track for the 1.5°C target.

For LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS, achieving this requires unprecedented support to ensure access to renewable energy and investments in sustainable energy. A just energy transition is integral not only for climate goals but also for economic growth and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A Call to Action

COP29’s results remind us that incremental steps are insufficient. The world’s most vulnerable countries are facing a climate emergency that demands bold and immediate actions. This includes:

• Ensuring timely and adequate climate finance flows to LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS.
• Enhancing support for adaptation, particularly through public grant and highly concessional means.
• Full and effective operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund.
• Empowering LDCs and SIDS to fully participate in the Article 6* market mechanisms.
• Supporting sustainable energy transitions aligned with global climate goals.

The survival of LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS is not just a litmus test for global climate commitments -it is a matter of justice, not charity.

As we look toward COP30 and beyond, let COP29 be a catalyst for greater ambition and unity. The time for half-hearted measures is over; the world must deliver on its promises to secure a just and sustainable future for all.

Rabab Fatima is Under Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS).

Prior to her appointment, she was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York. In that role, she co-chaired the preparatory committee meetings of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the LDC (2021). She also served as the President of the Executive Boards of UNICEF (2020) and UN-Women (2022) as well as Vice-President of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board.

She was the first women to be elected as the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission in 2022. She also led other inter-governmental processes, including the facilitation of the progress declaration of the first International Migration Review Forum.

https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/article-64-mechanism

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

Despite uneven economic recovery since the pandemic, poverty, inequality, and food insecurity continue to worsen, including in the Asia-Pacific region, which used to fare better than the rest of the Global South.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Food matters
These trends are not new but have been around for some time. Food security has deteriorated worldwide for a decade and will likely worsen.

Food security measures are more indicative of well-being than traditional poverty measures, which reflect cash incomes subject to inflation and spatial variations. After all, over half of the poor’s incomes worldwide are spent on food.

Due to global heating and rising sea levels, seawater is entering rice fields in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and other countries. Over ten Vietnamese provinces are affected, and less rice production will raise prices, worsening food insecurity.

There have been uneven and modest improvements in health indicators for the Asia-Pacific region, home to three-fifths of the world population. More is needed for preventive health instead of the typical focus on curative services.

In this connection, governments should realise that revenue-financed health systems are more equitable and efficient than either private or social insurance systems touted by all too many consultants.

Grim trends
Today’s macroeconomic situation differs from the Great Stagnation of the 1980s, which especially set back Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Unlike then, recent downturns have also hit many Asian economies. Recent ostensibly counter-inflationary measures have deepened stagnation in much of the world.

Geopolitics increasingly redirects trade and investments as economic measures are increasingly weaponised. The most vulnerable are most likely to suffer.

The Sri Lankan and Pakistani economies have been in crisis recently as others struggle to avoid similar fates. Debt distress demands attention, but international cooperation is crucial.

After two and a half years of unnecessarily raised interest rates, the US Federal Reserve recently started lowering them at the end of the Northern Hemisphere summer.

Why were those interest rates raised in the first place? Ostensibly due to inflation. But higher prices in recent years have been mainly due to supply-side disruptions, not ‘excessive’ demand.

Raising interest rates has not helped much, as demand-side contraction cannot address supply-side disruptions but only worsens macroeconomic stresses.

Exceptions
Higher interest rates have adversely affected the whole world, including Europe. But unlike other central banks, only the US Fed is committed to achieving full employment.

Such US exceptionalism is part of the problem. However, most economies worldwide have suffered from higher interest rates, which have deepened economic stagnation.

The US has maintained full employment through fiscal policy and has borrowed cheaply from the rest of the world due to its ‘exorbitant privilege’, which is denied to others.

However, Japan’s and China’s central banks have refused to follow the West in raising interest rates. Hence, the pain in economies following their lead has been less severe.

Many governments’ fiscal and debt problems have constrained social expenditures, typically the first victims of budget austerity measures.

Financialization
In recent decades, the Bretton Woods institutions have promoted financialization, often by invoking UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate financing slogans.

With the West’s ‘quantitative easing’ after the 2008 global financial crisis, slogans like ‘from billions to trillions’ encouraged more government borrowing on commercial terms.

Rising interest rates from early 2022 have hit developing countries, forcing macroeconomic authorities to increase debt servicing.

Many countries struggle to service debt worldwide by cutting social spending. This has hit nations facing debt crises and governments trying to avoid more debt distress.

New lessons
During the pandemic, some macroeconomic authorities resorted to policies previously eschewed. Two Southeast Asian nations turned to ‘monetary financing’ of pandemic spending: central banks lent directly to finance ministries, bypassing markets.

The International Monetary Fund also issued special drawing rights (SDRs). Such extraordinary measures are necessary to meet the SDGs and keep temperatures from rising over 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels.

The Banks of Canada and England former Governor Mark Carney, now UN Special Envoy for Climate Finance and Action, has warned that the 1.5oC threshold will likely be exceeded in under a decade.

The world cannot count on some miraculous future invention to reverse irreversible planetary heating processes and their many ramifications.

New realism
Pragmatism demands addressing realities faced. Many such problems are beyond the scope of the ministries responsible for social spending, policy and protection.

Due to ‘reshoring’ and digitalisation, new investment fads will not create enough jobs. New types of socially valuable employment are needed, with many touting the commercialisation of care work.

However, most of our society’s less well-off will be unable to afford commercial care work unless their incomes rise dramatically, which seems unlikely soon.

An ‘all-of-government’ approach remains relevant for developing countries to better cope with and reverse some of the worst social trends.

Trying to do better with the limited resources available for social spending will only be adequate if the ministries responsible for macroeconomic policy, finance, and other related matters cooperate much better than ever.

Improved all-of-government cooperation and coordination work much better with a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to better tackle the social challenges of our times.

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Debris left after Cyclone Winston in 2016. At least 44 people died, and any villages were completely destroyed. Credit: Vlad Sokhin / Climate Visuals

By Tanka Dhakal
THE HAGUE, Dec 5 2024 (IPS)

At The Hague, the United Nation’s highest court heard Fiji, a small island nation, lay out its arguments on the threat posed by climate change and the legal obligations, especially those of developed nations.

On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, Fiji argued that the failure to act on climate change is a violation of international law and that nations have a duty to prevent harm, protect human rights, and secure a livable future for all.

Luke Daunivalu, Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN in Geneva, laid out the background of suffering caused by sea level rise and worsening hazards on people who bear the brunt of climate impacts.

“Fiji stands before here, not only for our people but also for future generations and ecosystems,” Daunivalu said.

“Our people in climate vulnerable countries are unfairly and unjustly footing the bill for a crisis they did not create. They look to this court for clarity, for decisiveness, and for justice.”

Daunivalu was addressing the International Court of Justice (ICJ). At the request of Vanuatu, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of UN member states in preventing climate change and ensuring the protection of the environment for present and future generations. While its advisory opinion will not be enforceable, the court will advise on the legal consequences for member states who have caused significant harm, particularly to small island developing states.

Graham Leung, Fiji’s Attorney General, argued that international law imposes clear obligations on states to address climate change.

“We are not here to create new laws, but to ensure compliance with existing international laws.”

Citing the European Court of Human Rights precedent-setting judgment in April this year, which held that Switzerland has a responsibility under the European Convention for Human Rights (ECHR) to combat climate change effectively to protect the human rights of their citizens, Leung said, “States can be held individually accountable for their contributions to climate change. Similarly, it was affirmed that states failing to meet the obligations bear responsibility for their actions.”

U.S. Opposed Creation of New Legal Obligations

While Fiji was demanding more action from the nations who are largely responsible for the human-caused climate change impacts, countries like the United States argued against the creation of new legal obligations or determined reparations and stressed the importance of due diligence in addressing transboundary harm.

Margaret Taylor, an attorney at the Department of State who represented the U.S., said her country “recognizes the climate crisis as one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced.

However, climate change was an issue for the entire planet.

“It is global in its causes, resulting from a wide variety of human activities worldwide that emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, including super pollutants such as methane. Such activities include not only the burning of fossil fuels for energy production but also agriculture, deforestation, and industrial processes.”

Taylor emphasized that there was already a framework for climate action initiated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 2015 Paris Agreement and asked the court to preserve and promote the centrality of the UN climate change regime.

The U.S. argued advisory proceeding is not the means to litigate past violations or determine reparations but rather to guide future conduct.

“I want to underscore that there is no basis to apply any bifurcated or other categorical differentiation of duties among states, such as between those characterized as developed and those sometimes characterized as developing. There is simply no legal foundation for such an approach,” Taylor said.

She repeatedly brought up the concept of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, reflecting the principle that obligations should be interpreted according to national circumstances.

The U.S. also emphasized its commitment to addressing the climate crisis, aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero not later than 2050. She focused on the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the UNFCCC framework highlighted as central to international cooperation.

Russia Says 1.5°C is Not Binding

At the ICJ, Russia also supported the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, emphasizing national differentiation in climate efforts and the non-binding nature of the 1.5°C temperature goal. Like the US, Russia also underscored the need for international cooperation and the role of human rights in climate action.

Representing Russia, Maxim Musikhin, Director of the Foreign Ministry Legal Department, said, “There is no basis to consider the States are obligated to adopt measures to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C for similar reasons; the transition from fossil fuels is not a legal obligation but rather a political appeal to states.”

Russia argued that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is discussed in the climate change framework, but it has not crystallized in customary international law.

But Spain, who addressed the ICJ before the U.S. and Russia, argued the need for a human rights-based approach to climate change, highlighting the link between environmental degradation and human rights violations. It highlighted the environmental crisis as a global social crisis with a direct impact on the protection and enjoyment of human rights.

Vanuatu’s Disappointment

After the ICJ’s proceeding on Wednesday, Vanuatu expressed its disappointment. Ralph Regenvanu, Special Envoy for Climate Change and Environment for the Republic of Vanuatu, stressed that destruction of the climate system is unlawful, and big polluters must be held accountable.

“We are obviously disappointed by the statements made by the governments of Australia, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and China during the ICJ proceedings. These nations, some of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, have pointed to existing treaties and commitments that have regrettably failed to motivate substantial reductions in emissions.”

Regenvanu said in a statement, “Let me be clear: these treaties are essential, but they cannot be a veil for inaction or a substitute for legal accountability.”

At the court, frontline counties are pushing for clarification of the legal obligations of nations responsible for anthropogenic climate change. On Wednesday, Fiji urged the court to declare the failure to act on climate change a violation of international law and affirmed that states have a duty to prevent harm, protect human rights, and secure a livable future for all.

Leung urged the court, “Let this be the moment when the cries of the vulnerable are heard.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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• Climate Change’s Dire Consequences Laid Bare at International Court of Justice Hearings
• Small Island States Urge International Court to Look Beyond Climate Treaties
• Youth-Led Landmark Climate Change Case Starts in The Hague

Excerpt:

The International Court of Justice in the Hague has heard differing interpretations of the obligations of UN member states to preserve the environment for present and future generations. Fiji, a small island state, urged the court to listen to the cries of the vulnerable.

The international carbon markets need recognition of community rights to be integrated in the national and international supporting regulations and guidance. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

By Rebecca Iwerks and Alain Frechette
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 4 2024 (IPS)

This time last year, the forestry space was abuzz with news of the big Blue Carbon deals. The deals set a staggering amount of land in Sub-Saharan Africa – 20% of the land in Zimbabwe, 10% of Liberia and Zambia, 8% of Tanzania, and an undisclosed amount of land in Kenya – to be managed by a firm in the United Arab Emirates.

Without involvement of communities impacted by the projects, countries across Africa were strapped into memorandums of agreement with 30 years of commitments. Reports suggested that Blue Carbon was retaining upwards of 70% of the project revenues while impacting the livelihoods of millions. The audacious scale of the project shocked the conscience.

Carbon projects have run afoul of community land rights throughout the Global South, from Brazil to Laos to Malaysia. In many places, communities have not received revenue – or, worse, have been removed from their land – after keeping the landscapes intact for generations

One year later, among the jumble of headlines coming out of the recent UN climate change talks in Baku was the adoption of new rules intended to jumpstart the carbon credit markets.

These financial initiatives were included in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to provide incentives for efforts that reduce carbon emissions. The new UN rules, however, have already been criticized for not providing sufficient guardrails to avoid transactions like the Blue Carbon deals from happening elsewhere.

With the new rules, it won’t be clear whether communities who have lived on and worked their territories for generations should be consulted as part of a project. If things go well, it won’t be clear that they are entitled to benefits and if things go poorly, it won’t be clear that they should be able to claim remedies.

Carbon projects have run afoul of community land rights throughout the Global South, from Brazil to Laos to Malaysia. In many places, communities have not received revenue – or, worse, have been removed from their land – after keeping the landscapes intact for generations.

The repeated headlines have impacted market confidence – volume and value have decreased for two consecutive years. Unfortunately, policy makers have yet to make changes that would reduce the risks.

Governments and companies have repeatedly asserted the important link between community land rights and better outcomes for the planet.

At the start of November, at the UN talks on biodiversity, the governments emphasized the critical importance of tenure security to protect biodiversity.

Ten days later, leaders from 12 countries joined with Indigenous leaders to stress the importance of land tenure to protect forests as part of the Forest Climate Leaders Partnership.

Governments are saying this because study after study shows that when Indigenous Peoples and local communities have clear tenure over their forest, the forest is better protected.

National legislation is murky, however. Most countries do not recognize the rights of people living on the land impacted by carbon projects.

We collaborated with experts at McGill University to study the legal frameworks of 33 countries and found only three countries recognized community-based carbon rights.

The lack of national legal guidelines for the carbon markets is alarming. More than half of the countries we studied do not have regulations for carbon trading.

Almost two-thirds have no evidence of a registry of carbon projects and, of those that do, only six have this information publicly available. Only seven have designed or implemented benefit-sharing policies that apply to carbon market projects and only four of the seven have established a minimum allocation requirement for affected communities.

Policy makers at the global level had the opportunity to fix this problem. But now, all eyes turn to national governments. Before they rush to create new carbon policies after Baku, they can make their countries a place where carbon projects are more secure by making community land rights front and center.

This is still a story that has yet to end. Just a few months ago, the Liberian National Climate Change Steering Committee (NCCSC) put a moratorium on all carbon credit projects until they have proper carbon regulations in place.

Liberia had two things going for it: strong land laws and strong organizing. Now it needs regulations to handle carbon trading.

The international carbon markets need recognition of community rights to be integrated in the national and international supporting regulations and guidance. The markets are like any other financial market – transparency, guardrails, and enforcement measures are needed to bring about confidence, and at this point, they’re needed very quickly.

 

Alain Frechette, PhD, is Rights, Climate & Conservation Director at Rights and Resources Initiative. Rebecca Iwerks is Director of Global Land and Environmental Justice Initiative at Namati.

Professor Rossino Almeida, from the Federal University of Campina Grande (I), explains to ninth grade students at the Gurjão municipal school, northeastern Brazil, how the biodigester installed by the EcoProductive Pilot Project at the Tapera Farm works. Credit: Carlos Müller / IPS

By Carlos Müller
CONGO, Brazil, Dec 4 2024 (IPS)

In the municipality of Congo, in the state of Paraiba, in the driest territory of Brazil’s semi-arid region, an original initiative seeks to prove it is possible to overcome several challenges concerning family farming. It is the EcoProductive Pilot Project.

This project shares  innovations that support family farming production, combat the region’s desertification process and encourage young people to stay in the territory, learning to coexist with adverse conditions through agroecology, which includes biodigesters, photovoltaic energy and technical assistance.“I bought this land for US$1,750. That was in 2006, when the national minimum wage was US$61 and at that time the Paraíba river didn't have water all year round”: José Roberto da Silva

The municipality of Congo has an area of 333 square kilometres, 4,692 inhabitants, 37.25% of whom live in rural areas, where there are 415 farms. Its Human Development Index (HDI) is low, 0.581, ranked 116th among the 223 municipalities in the state of Paraíba, according to official data.

Its average annual rainfall is 610 millimetres (mm) per square metre, which in the four dry months of the year drops to 5 mm, and its average annual temperature is 23.7°C.

EcoProductivo is a cooperation between the Paraíba state government, the Federal University of Campina Grande, about 140 kilometres from Congo, and the Community Association of Farmers, Beekeepers and Breeders of the Tatú, Tapera, Poso Cumprido and Barro Branco Communities, which goes by the unpronounceable acronym Acapcac-Ttpcbb.

The association was founded in 2022 and has 140 members (96 families), including 34 women and 15 young people.

Procase consultant Felipe Leal talks about the genetic improvement of animals at the Community Association of Farmers, Beekeepers and Breeders of the Tatú, Tapera, Poso Cumprido and Barro Branco Communities in the state of Paraíba, northeastern Brazil. Credit: Carlos Müller / IPS

A solutions lab

What is known as the Open Air Laboratory is located in the community of Tapera, part of the village of Congo. There, a small family farm was chosen where 30 strategic actions will be carried out and shared with the other members of the association.

The farms and the location of the Ecoproductive Pilot Project were chosen by a technical committee with the participation of association representatives, according to their moderate to high risk of desertification, their socio-economic profile and the presence of the Paraíba Sustainable Rural Development Project (Procase).

Sítio Tapera, the establishment that became the headquarters of the ‘laboratory’, belongs to José Roberto da Silva and his wife Marlene.

“I was a cowboy all my life and when I decided to stop, the rancher I worked for gave me a bonus. With that money I bought this land for 10,000 reais (US$1,750). That was in 2006, when the national minimum wage was 350 reais (US$61) and at that time the Paraíba river didn’t have water all year round,” Silva told IPS.

The 29.5 hectare site is crossed by the Paraíba River, which, despite being the largest river in the state, was not perennial until recently. Its flow was normalized through one of the São Francisco river diversion canals.

The prickly pear palm, widely used northeastern Brazil to feed livestock during droughts, is grown in the EcoProductive Pilot Project in the state of Paraíba, where a species resistant to the pest known as the Cochineal is being planted. Credit: Carlos Müller / IPS

Water from the diversion

The São Francisco is the largest river entirely within the borders of Brazil and flows through several states. Work to divert between 1% and 3% of its flow began in 2007 amidst much criticism.

At a cost of US$2,450 million, the works have not been completed yet, but its two main canals, totalling 480 kilometres, in addition to making several rivers permanent, feed many dams in several states in northeastern Brazil.

The subsoil of the Northeast region contains important water tables, but they are brackish. The flow of the São Francisco represents 70% of all freshwater in the Northeast, where 28% of Brazil’s 212 million people live.

The Paraíba River, which has become a perennial river, allows farmers from the association to maintain dams in order to raise tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fish. Two were built on the site used as the headquarters of the ‘laboratory’, which received 3,500 fingerlings donated by the state government.

The water drawn from the river is also used to irrigate the new fruit trees and the prickly pear (Mauritia flexuosa) of a species resistant to the pest known as Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus).

EcoProductivo was launched in April 2023. Among its goals are the genetic improvement of 400 cows, 1,800 goats and 1,800 sheep; the installation of a solar energy generation system and a biodigester to replace the use of liquefied gas; ponds for fish farming, and the production of seedlings of various species.

It also seeks to implement sustainable soil management practices, with the aim of conserving fertility and reducing erosion, and reforest degraded areas and plant fruits compatible with the conditions of the region, such as cashew, guava and passion fruit, irrigated with solar energy.

In the first year of project implementation, in addition to the fish ponds, a biodigester, a photovoltaic energy generation system, a corral that houses animals for the improvement of the community’s herds, and nurseries for fruit seedlings and reforestation were installed at Sitio Tapera.

The total cost of the project was budgeted at US$55,087, and Felipe Leal, a consultant for Procase, told IPS about its main components: the photovoltaic system, corrals, irrigation system, excavated tanks and the weather station installed by a state government agency at a cost of more than US$21,000.

Ana Carla Ramos da Silva’s farm is building the community’s second biodigester and the benefits of genetic improvement of her goat herd are already paying off. She sells 150 litres of goat milk a week and will soon supply 190 kilos of cheese to the Brazilian government’s Food Procurement Programme. Credit: Carlos Müller / IPS

Gas of their own

The biodigester, explained Professor Rossino Almeida of the Federal University of Capina Grande, who is providing technical assistance to the project, “costs US$ 1,400. Of this, 70% is financed by public resources and 30% by the landowner, divided in 10 instalments”.

“Bottled gas is expensive and I can’t fetch firewood because I had heart surgery. Now, with the biodigester, I only used the gas from the cylinder to make food for the whole family on Mother’s Day. The last cylinder we bought was last year,” said Marlene da Silva with a satisfied smile.

According to Leal, thanks to the project’s improvements and technical assistance, José Roberto da Silva’s family has already earned the equivalent of US$5,606 this year from the sale of cassava, lettuce, sweet potatoes, and is about to sell a tonne of fish grown in their two ponds. They have also sold three litres of honey.

The loan of breeding animals, the supply of seedlings and technical assistance is already benefiting the other families of the Association, even if they have not made investments like those made in Sítio Tapera.

Each pond in the Eco-Productive Pilot Project received 3,500 fingerlings donated by the government of the state of Paraíba, in northeastern Brazil. In the first harvest, the Da Silva family, owner of Sítio Tapera, aims to sell a tonne of tilapia for just over US$3,600. Credit: Carlos Müller / IPS

Markets for increased production

On Ana Carla Ramos da Silva’s property, a second biodigester is being built. But with the genetic improvement of her goat herd, she already sells 150 litres of goat milk a week and is preparing to sell 190 kilograms of cheese, as well as expanding honey production.

One of the farmers’ main concerns was what to do to market a larger production. Procase technicians and Professor Almeida have been assisting in contacts with traders and in seeking access to public and private markets.

One of the priority channels is the Brazilian federal government’s Food Acquisition Programme (PAA), which buys products from family farming for distribution to welfare institutions.

“We finished the consultancy with a total of 15 EcoProdutivo beneficiaries enrolled in the PAA. We helped in the organisation of documentation and estimations of the products to be delivered, among other demands. It is worth noting that of 15 enrolled, 12 are women,” Leal said in a message sent to IPS.

On the day IPS learned about the experience, Sítio Tapera was also visited by a group of ninth-graders, mostly 15 years old, from the Inácio Caluete municipal school in Gurjão, a nearby municipality of about 4,500 inhabitants and even drier than Congo.

These teenagers, most of them farmers’ sons and daughters, have, in addition to their regular subjects, elective classes in the Rural Entrepreneurship Education and Sustainable Agricultural Practices Programme, which are not only theoretical. That day was dedicated to field work.

Regenerative agricultural practices are a set of rejuvenating farming and agricultural sustainable practices that seek to boost soil health, water resources, soil organic carbon sequestration and soils biological diversity. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Dec 4 2024 (IPS)

Recently, at the UN climate conference COP29, countries agreed to do everything necessary to invest in climate solutions to protect lives and livelihoods from worsening climate change impacts and to build a prosperous world. This is necessary. Indeed, every effort must be made by our leaders to protect lives and livelihoods.

One of the best investments possible is in agricultural climate solutions. In particular, investments in solutions that seek to protect soils and agricultural crops that we depend upon to meet food security.

Otherwise, these soils and crops are vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the form of droughts, flooding, pest outbreaks, and elevated temperatures.

Although it is a daunting task, protecting livelihoods and agricultural crops from the detrimental impacts of climate change is achievable.

Adopting regenerative practices has been documented to bring multiple benefits including building soil health and quality, improving biodiversity, all while helping to mitigate the effects of climate change

Preventing crop failures and cascading impacts including food insecurity, hunger, and famines can be achieved by rolling out and adopting multiple climate solution strategies ranging from the use of microbial solutions and beneficial soil microbes and the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices and integrated pest management strategies.

Microbial solutions, including soil microbial inoculants, leverage beneficial soil microbes and natural soil microbiome capabilities to create fertile and resilient environments for agricultural plants, including processes like suppression of soil pathogens, fixing soil nitrogen and making other important plant nutrients such as phosphorus available.

Accumulating evidence has revealed that beneficial soil microbes can deliver many benefits including improving the growth and yields of agricultural crops like maize, tomatoes and wheat that are important for meeting food security needs.

Additionally, these microbes have been shown to shield agricultural crop plants from drought and enhance crops’ ability to tolerate elevated temperatures, salinity, insects and many other stressors associated with climate change. Beneficial soil microbes are critical in mitigating the effects of climate-change associated stressors.

Regenerative agricultural practices are a set of rejuvenating farming and agricultural sustainable practices that seek to boost soil health, water resources, soil organic carbon sequestration and soils biological diversity.

These sustainable practices include cover cropping, crop rotation, planting diverse crops, minimizing soil disturbance, using less fertilizers, agricultural inputs and chemical pesticides and incorporating livestock.

Adopting regenerative practices has been documented to bring multiple benefits including building soil health and quality, improving biodiversity, all while helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. For example, research has revealed that cover crops can improve soil health and increase the abundance of beneficial insect communities.

Integrated pest management is an approach that doesn’t rule out the use of pesticides, but uses them as little as possible and only for strong reasons.

It promotes the use of safer alternatives, like biocontrol, which uses natural enemies to control pests, and cultural control practices which modify the growing environment to reduce unwanted pests.

Integrated pest management approaches include the use of resistant plant varieties that have been bred to resist insect damage, and crop rotation which changes the crops planted every season or year, to break the life-cycle of insect pests and discourage pests from staying on the farm.

Ultimately, strategies being released to help deal with the climate crisis must fundamentally pay attention to improving soil and its health. Soil is the basis of healthy and nutritious food, income and economy.

Initiatives rolled out to build soil health must be rooted in science and adhere to the several science-based soil health building principles and practices including mulching, conservation agriculture, reduced tillage and cover cropping.

Smart investments in the soil must be based on a scientific assessment of the state of the soil, making soil testing initiatives a good place to start. Knowing what soils need allows for precise interventions and is a win for climate resillience and environmental protection.

Building soil health will build back life-giving soil nutrients, diverse soil microbial communities and soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is associated with other benefits, such as improvements to plant health and yields; increased soil water retention, which increases the ability of crops to tolerate drought; and expansion of biological diversity within the soil.

Diverse biological organisms in soils turn play critical roles in soil ecosystems, including decomposition, breaking down pollutants, and cycling essential plant nutrients., life-giving nutrients, and diverse soil microbial communities, and in turn boost climate resillience.

Importantly, as we roll out these initiatives, we must remember that the ability of communities and citizens of different countries to adapt and employ these strategies will vary enormously, depending on financial capabilities.

Financial investments to support rolling out of these agricultural climate solutions and practices can be channeled through governments departments and ministry of agriculture.

Protecting lives, livelihoods, and agricultural crops from the catastrophic impacts of climate change is an urgent task that will require the rolling out of multiple initiatives-from regenerative farming practices to using microbial inoculants and adopting integrated pest management strategies. We must continue to encourage countries to invest in these initiatives. It is a win- win.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Women in Kilema village harvest orange sweet potatoes. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
KILIMANJARO, Tanzania , Dec 4 2024 (IPS)

In the sun-scorched soils of Moshi, where every drop of rain counts, two female farmers have defied the odds through technology. Mwajuma Rashid Njau and Mumii Rajab, once locked in a daily struggle to survive, have found a mobile phone their best ally.

For years, farming was a way of life they struggled to master. Their fields, a patchwork of red earth and wilting crops, symbolized hardship rather than prosperity. Pests came with the seasons, the soil quality deteriorated, and their harvests barely provided enough to feed their families. But now, a simple app—Kiazi Bora—has changed everything.

On a sweltering afternoon, Njau was out in the field, staring helplessly at the rows of wilting sweet potatoes ravaged by pests, when he realized things could be different. She had no idea how to stop it—until she opened the Kiazi Bora app on her phone.

“This app has changed everything,” Njau, 38, says with a tired but hopeful smile. “I didn’t know where to start, but now I can check my phone, and it tells me exactly what to do.”

The Kiazi Bora app, designed specifically for small-scale farmers like Njau and Rashid, focuses on helping them grow nutritious orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) to feed their families and earn income. The app offers simple instructions on planting and pest control to farmers with little education.

The app, Kiazi Bora (“quality potatoes” in Kiswahili), wasn’t just another farming tool—it was powered by cutting-edge AI voice technology. And for the first time, it spoke their language.

Creating Kiazi Bora wasn’t easy. Kiswahili, a language spoken by over 200 million people, presented unique challenges for AI developers. The problem? There simply wasn’t enough high-quality voice data to train the technology.

“One of the biggest challenges has been the availability of diverse, high-quality data,” said EM Lewis-Jong, Director of Mozilla Common Voice, a global project dedicated to making AI accessible to speakers of underrepresented languages.

“Kiswahili is a diverse language with many regional variants, and our tools are primarily designed for English, which complicates things further.”

To solve this issue, SEE Africa, the nonprofit behind Kiazi Bora, turned to Mozilla’s Common Voice platform. Unlike other AI data collection methods, which often rely on scraping the web or underpaid gig workers, Common Voice harnesses the power of community. “We use a crowd-sourced model where people voluntarily contribute their voice data,” explained Lewis-Jong. “This ensures that the data reflects the true diversity of the language, including different accents and dialects.”

This community-driven approach has already seen tremendous success. In Tanzania, the Kiazi Bora app is now used by over 300 women, empowering them with knowledge on how to grow and market their crops. “These women are learning in Kiswahili, their first language, which makes a huge difference,” noted Gina Moape, Community Manager for Common Voice. “We’ve seen firsthand how access to information in their own language improves both their nutrition and their ability to participate in economic activities.”

But Kiazi Bora is just one example of how voice-enabled technology can make a real impact.

For Mozilla, these projects reflect a broader vision: democratizing AI so that it serves everyone, not just speakers of dominant languages. “If data creation is left to for-profit companies, many of the world’s languages will be left behind,” said Lewis-Jong. “We want a world where people can create the data they need, capturing their language as they experience it.”

That’s why Mozilla’s Common Voice is not just a tool but a movement. Its open-source platform allows communities to collect and contribute voice data that anyone can use, fostering local innovation across Africa. “We’re particularly excited about the potential for African languages,” Lewis-Jong added. “Our long-term vision is to integrate more African languages into global voice recognition technologies, and Common Voice is a critical part of making that happen.”

For Rashid, 42, who had once lived in uncertainty, the app was a useful tool. “Before, I felt powerless,” she recalls. “When pests attacked, I would just watch as my crops withered. Now, I can fight back. I know what to do.”

Both women have honed their skills and improved crop yields. The app taught them how to manage soil health, optimize planting schedules, and handle pest outbreaks.

Their orange-fleshed sweet potatoes stand out in contrast to the dusty earth, a sign of resilience and renewal.

The duo, who were entangled in a cycle of poverty, now speak with pride about their success.

“We’ve learned to control our future,” Njau says.

Through Kiazi Bora, Njau and Rajabu have unlocked opportunities to improve their livelihoods and break free from poverty.

Njau, who had to drop out of school when her family moved to a remote village, calls the app her “teacher.” She explains, “I never completed school, but this app has taught me everything I need to know about farming. It’s like a teacher that’s always there when I need it.”

The voice-enabled Kiswahili features make it user-friendly. “The app speaks to me in a language I clearly understand,” Njau says.

Through the app, Njau and Rajabu learned how to process potatoes into flour and pastries, which fetch a higher market price.

Rajabu explains, “I didn’t know you could make flour from sweet potatoes or that you could sell it for more money. Now, I have customers who buy the flour because it lasts longer than fresh potatoes.” This new skill has allowed them to diversify their income.

In just a year, their income increased from zero to USD 127 per month. The extra income has enabled them to take care of their families, reinvest in their farms, and secure a better future. “With the money I’ve made, I’ve been able to send my children to school and even save some for emergencies,” says Njau.

The potatoes, which are rich in vitamins, have helped them fight malnutrition in their communities. While neither Njau nor Rajabu had children with malnutrition, they both knew families who struggled with it. Thanks to the app, they now understand the importance of incorporating OFSP into their daily meals to ensure their children stay healthy.

Rajabu was quick to share the app with her relatives. “I told my sister about it, and now she’s also growing OFSP. Her children are healthier, and she’s even making money from selling sweet potato flour,” she says proudly.

For both women, the app has empowered them as farmers, businesswomen and community leaders. “I feel confident now,” Rajabu says. “This app has changed my life, and I know it can help other women like me.”

Both Njau and Rajabu see immense potential for Kiazi Bora to help other rural women. They advocate for expanding the app beyond OFSP farming to include other crops like vegetables and edible roots, as this could further diversify their income streams and enhance food security in their communities.

“Women in rural areas need this technology,” Rajabu emphasizes. “We need to make sure that we can feed our families and earn better incomes.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Two Lebanese children residing in a school-turned-shelter in Beirut following an escalation of hostilities in Lebanon. Credit: UNICEF/Fouad Choufany

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 2024 (IPS)

On November 27, Israel, Lebanon, and a host of mediating states agreed upon a ceasefire agreement that would establish a permanent cessation of warfare between the two parties. As of December 3, there have been no reported instances of Hezbollah directing attacks toward Israel that resulted in any casualties. Despite this, there have been numerous reported violations committed by Israel, causing extensive harm to civilian lives and local infrastructure. Many parties have warned for the international community to hold Israel accountable for these violations.

The ceasefire agreement mandates both Israel and Hezbollah withdraw their forces from each other’s territories and report any and all violations of peace to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the committee of mediating nations. Israel has been given a 60-day period to retreat the entirety of its troops from southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah must withdraw its forces north of the Litani River.

According to a December 1 report released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 578,641 internally displaced persons began moving back to their place of origin in Lebanon. It is also stated that further airstrikes and military restrictions imposed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have left many unable to return to their communities.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor issued a press release on December 2, reporting that Israel had violated the terms of the agreement at least 18 times in southern Lebanon alone. As of December 1, there have been 62 reported violations committed by Israel that have targeted civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon. It’s been reported that Lebanese civilians were killed through the IDF opening fire on them and commanding drone strikes. Additionally, the IDF have issued further restrictions of movement south of the Litani River.

December 2 marked the deadliest day of hostilities in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect. It began when Hezbollah launched two projectiles toward Israel, responding to a series of violations committed by Israel over the past week. The attack, described as a “defensive warning strike”, landed in an open area and caused no injuries.

In a statement posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed plans to retaliate against Hezbollah, describing the attack as “a serious violation of the ceasefire”, adding that Israel will “respond to any violation by Hezbollah-minor or serious.”

Israeli Minister of Military Affairs Israel Katz urged Lebanon to uphold their conditions of the ceasefire. “If the ceasefire collapses, there will be no more exemption for the state of Lebanon. We will enforce the agreement with maximum impact and zero tolerance. If until now we have differentiated between Lebanon and Hezbollah, that will no longer be the case,” Katz said. He did not address Israel’s numerous reported violations.

The IDF responded by launching a series of strikes on two southern Lebanese towns, Talousa and Haris, killing at least eleven civilians and causing considerable damage to local infrastructure.

In a statement issued on X, the IDF stated that they struck Hezbollah terrorists, dozens of launchers, and terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon in response to several acts by Hezbollah in Lebanon that posed a threat to Israeli civilians, in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon They added that the state of Israel remains allegiant to the conditions laid out in the ceasefire agreement but will continue to defend itself.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied Israel’s reported violations of the agreement, adding that Israel would “not accept a return to the situation as it stood [prior to the escalation of hostilities].” French Foreign Minster Jean-Noël Barrot was reported speaking to Saar over a phone call noting that it was urgent “for all sides to respect the ceasefire in Lebanon”.

Despite this, the Biden administration has expressed concern that the “fragile” ceasefire agreement might unravel due to repeated violations of the agreement. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein issued a warning to Israel over its ongoing violations.

An Israeli official informed news publications that Hochstein believes that Israel is enforcing the ceasefire “too aggressively”. Hochstein also reportedly expressed uncertainty over the endurance of the ceasefire, opining that the situation is dependent on how Hezbollah responds to the recent attacks.

Officials from the United States have confirmed that despite sporadic strikes from both sides of the border, they remain confident that the ceasefire agreement will not waver.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters; “Obviously, when you have any ceasefire, you can see violations of it. Broadly speaking, it is our assessment that despite some of these incidents that we are seeing, the ceasefire is holding.” White House spokesperson John Kirby added that “there has been a dramatic reduction in the violence. The monitoring mechanism is in full force and is working”.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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