- Home
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Climate Action
Climate Action
Pakistn recupera su verdor
La provincia pakistaní de Khyber Pakhtunkhwa situada a unos 50 kilómetros de la capital Islamabad se ha cubierto de árboles estos últimos años. El paisaje se ha transformado al mismo tiempo que cambiaba la sociedad. La lucha contra el recalentamiento del clima y el combate contra la pobreza forman parte de la misma estrategia.
Gran angular: Filosofía y ética del cambio climático
La humanidad está en deuda. Año tras año consume más recursos de los que la naturaleza puede proporcionar. Este consumo excesivo tiene un efecto directo sobre el clima. Para comprender mejor la problemática en juego el biólogo y filósofo Bernard Feltz esclarece las complejas relaciones entre el hombre y la naturaleza al tiempo que se centra en los aspectos éticos de la gestión del cambio climático.
Nuestro invitado: Bakú, ciudad multicultural
Con una antigüedad de varios milenios la ciudad amurallada de Bakú capital de Azerbaiyán guarda huellas de la presencia de mazdeístas sasánidas árabes persas sirvaníes otomanos y rusos. La ciudad moderna nacida del primer boom del petróleo a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX conserva un patrimonio cultural igualmente ecléctico. Gracias a su bahía y a la proximidad de las rutas de las caravanas Bakú siempre ha estado surcada por diversas corrientes. Esa característica la ha dotado de una diversidad a la vez armoniosa y excepcional que se refleja tanto en su arquitectura como en su espíritu cosmopolita.
Arshak Makichyan, piquetero solitario
Todos los viernes desde marzo de 2019 Arshak Makichyan ha manifestado solo en la plaza Pushkin de Moscú la capital de Rusia. En sus pancartas se leen consignas como “El calentamiento global es igual al hambre las guerras y la muerte”. Este joven violinista libra una batalla solitaria y tenaz en nombre de todo el planeta.
Making gold greener?
Poorly regulated gold mining is spreading around the world. Every day millions of artisanal and small-scale gold miners work extremely hard in often poor conditions and without the protective framework of formal labour market standards. By evening the vast majority have harvested only miniscule amounts of gold if anything at all. But the economic incentives are still attractive. Since ancient times gold has continuously been used as a source of long-term investment and it has now found its way into modern technologies and industry including computers cell phones and medical equipment. Global financial turmoil has helped more than double the price of an ounce of gold from $500 to well over $1000 over the past decade. Many poor people in rural areas have shifted their attention from agriculture to mining as a source of livelihood.
Matters of judgement
An independent judiciary in a political and legal system that values integrity and transparency is vital in addressing environmental degradation and in upholding the environmental rule of law worldwide. In an urban planning case at the National High Court of Brazil the court stated a view that I believe to be true in all areas of environmental law.
Ethical business works best
Forty-four years ago my parents joined the Government of Malaysia's settler programme administered by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) a decision that has had a big influence on my life right up to today.
Blood gold
Day or night? It makes no difference in the Amazon gold rush. The clatter of the hundreds of engines that pump water in search of the precious metal never stops. By day enormous trucks move the earth where forests once stood; by night the soil is washed with hundreds of cubic metres of water to extract the gold. Informal mining camps extend into Peru Colombia Bolivia and Brazil destroying the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world and poisoning the land inhabited by hundreds of indigenous peoples with mercury. Huge tracts of tropical rainforest have become graveyards for trees drenched in the toxic metal.
Delivering on the mission
“No matter how minuscule or how vast only protection will make them last. We need to help the ones that can't help themselves because they become extinct so fast.”
Good connections
In 2012 I was invited to join a safari at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Lion prides cheetah coalitions and herds of buffalo and giraffes walk freely there. Majestic African elephants also roam the conservancy’s terrain but in far smaller numbers than they once did.
Prosecute climate crimes
Criminal justice can help achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change as part of an integrated approach from governments private businesses finance science civil society and others.
Clearing the air
Ninety-eight per cent of cities with more than 100000 inhabitants in low and middle income countries do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines concludes the WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database 2016 update. In high-income countries however that percentage decreases to 56 per cent. In South Asia air pollution is especially acute in such countries as China Indonesia and India requiring State authorities to take immediate action to safeguard the health of their citizens. Long-term health effects include respiratory diseases like lung cancer and even damage to the brain and an increased risk of heart disease. A WHO study estimated that about 12.6 million deaths in the year 2012 could be linked to an unhealthy environment. India's Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 defines air pollution as “the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant” and an air pollutant as “any solid liquid or gaseous substance including noise present in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or environment.”
Colonel: We must act quickly!
Apathetic and soporific. These words describe the state of public opinion and the media’s attitude to climate change according to French-Danish conceptual artist Thierry Geoffroy alias Colonel. Little by little his slogans – that wavered between “Before it’s too late” and “Tomorrow is too late” – were reduced to a simple “Too late”. Paradoxically it is in despair that he finds some consolation.
Defining moment
We stand at a defining moment for the future of the planet and human well-being. Our global commons – the land seas and atmosphere we share and the ecosystems they host – are under severe threat from ever more powerful human activities.
Current Affairs: Mandela’s South Africa: Reality or distant dream?
Twenty-five years after attaining democracy South Africa has taken giant strides towards forging a united nation. But overcoming racism and realizing Nelson Mandela’s vision of a nation that belongs to all who live in it remains a wonderful ideal – which still requires a lot of work according to Justice Jody Kollapen. Both an arbitrator and a victim of racist cases (he was refused a haircut as recently as in October 2003!) this human rights defender maintains that there is enough goodwill to build on Mandela’s vision.
Climate change: A new subject for the law
More and more citizens and nongovernmental organizations around the world are going to court to seek climate change justice. The unprecedented extent of these disputes deserves to be highlighted. This relatively recent type of litigation is forging public opinion and constitutes a form of pressure on states and industries that is forcing them out of their inertia.
Pakistan: Green again
A billion trees have been planted in recent years in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about fifty kilometres from Islamabad the country’s capital. The landscape has been transformed and so has society. The fight against global warming and the fight against poverty are one and the same.
Climate and social justice
There is a tendency in the public debate on climate change to present the use and development of green technologies as a miracle solution or panacea. We often forget one aspect: it is crucial to ensure that their development goes hand in hand with social justice. “The realization that it is not just global warming that we are dealing with but global warming in an unequal and unjust world has yet to sink in” according to Thiagarajan Jayaraman. Without equality and equity – in other words without peace and security – we cannot effectively fight climate change the Indian climate policy expert insists.