Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Fabíola Ortiz RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6, 2011 (IPS) – With seven months to go until the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, Brazil is uniting in support of proposals to be included in the summit’s draft final document, which aim to transfer its successful national social and [...]
OP-ED: The Future of Carbon Markets: Taking Politics Seriously
November 23, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Peter Newell * BRIGHTON, United Kingdom, Nov 22, 2011 (Tierramérica) – Carbon markets are under attack on all sides, despite ongoing faith in their ability to deliver meaningful reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs). As the Durban climate summit approaches and as the first commitment period of the [...]
Survival Fear Stalks Millions in West Africa
November 23, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Jerome Mwanda IDN-InDepth NewsReport NAIROBI (IDN) – Massive leasing of lands, which the government of Mali justifies with the need to "modernize" the country’s agriculture, is threatening the survival of populations dependent on the water flows of the Niger River in Mali and in the rest of [...]
The Tale of Two Cleaned Up Asian Cities
November 23, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Taro Ichikawa IDN-InDepth NewsFeature DALIAN (IDN) – The partner cities of Dalian in Northern China and Kitakyushu in Western Japan have distinguished themselves as dedicated proponents of pollution control and clean environment. Back in the 1960s and 1970s the two cities were severely polluted by heavy industry [...]
Unique Mexican Oasis in Danger of Vanishing
November 18, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Emilio Godoy MEXICO CITY, Nov 18, 2011 (IPS) – A rare wetlands ecosystem in the Chihuahuan desert in northern Mexico that may hold key information about the origins of life on earth – and even about possible life on Mars – is in serious danger of disappearing [...]
CENTRAL ASIA: Together They Lose
November 18, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Christopher Pala ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Nov 18, 2011 (IPS) – Rarely have so many donor countries spent so much for so long to achieve so little. In fact, the scores of Western countries ranging from the Netherlands to the United States that have tried for 20 years to [...]
BRAZIL: Small-Scale Land Speculators Contribute to Amazon Deforestation
July 28, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Stephen Leahy* UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jul 28, 2011 (Tierramérica) – Many migrants from southern Brazil who clear forests in Brazil’s state of Amazonas are making their living as small-scale land speculators and not as farmers or as cattle ranchers, new research has found. This on-the-ground reality and the [...]
AUSTRALIA: Renewable Energy Wins, Controversially
July 14, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Stephen de Tarczynski MELBOURNE, Jul 14, 2011 (IPS) – Australia has taken a major step in reducing its future greenhouse gas output with the announcement of a plan that will initially place a tax on every tonne of carbon pollution produced by hundreds of the country’s major [...]
Q&A: Cook Islands Aims for 100 Percent Green Energy by 2020
July 13, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS Stephen Leahy interviews HENRY PUNA, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands VIENNA, Jul 13, 2011 (IPS) – "One hundred percent renewable energy by 2020… It is ambitious but it is not impossible," Henry Puna, prime minister of the Cook Islands, told IPS in a recent interview. The Cook [...]
The Global Climate Regime on the Brink
June 19, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Martin Khor* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint GENEVA (IDN) – We agreed in Bali in December 2007 to build a much stronger international climate regime to better cope with recent alarming analysis of the disastrous effects of climate change. But instead of achieving this new regime, we now see [...]
