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Un groupe de ministres européens des Affaires étrangères s’est réuni à Varsovie mardi 19 novembre pour réaffirmer sa solidarité avec l’Ukraine malgré une réduction potentielle de l’aide américaine.

“The fundamental conflict was between the economy ministry's focus on energy efficiency and the affordability of construction,” said housing minister Klara Geywitz.

The EU’s energy transition offers a unique opportunity for sustainable growth. DP World commits to ambitious emission reduction targets, renewable energy, and innovative logistics solutions, aiming for net zero by 2050. Collaboration with policymakers is crucial for achieving these goals.

A Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ) előrejelzése szerint felhős/borús időjárás várható szerdán (11. 20.). Reggel elvétve köd, napközben sok helyen eső vagy zápor kerekedhet. Délután változóvá válik a felhőképződés, s csapadék csak helyenként valószínű. A havazás eleinte csak a magashegységekben lesz jellemző, majd fokozatosan a középhegységekben – délután és este északon az alacsonyabban fekvő helyeken is – havazhat. Estére itt-ott jegesedés is előfordulhat, főleg északon.

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Moscow has said such weapons cannot be launched without direct US operational support and their use would make Washington a direct combatant in the war.

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It is the centre ground's job to save the EU from drifting apart in this era of profound change, writes Renew Europe leader Valérie Hayer.

Brad Wilson is an American photographer specializing in classical portraits of animals. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
BAKU, Nov 20 2024 (IPS)

As delegates at COP29 stroll through the venue in Baku, Azerbaijan, many pause to marvel at the stunning portraits of animals and birds adorning the pavilion walls. These 16 captivating images, showcasing Azerbaijan’s rich biodiversity, are more than just art—they’re a call to action.

Visitors, from diplomats to environmental activists, can often be seen snapping selfies with these majestic portraits, drawn to their lifelike intensity. Behind this collection is Brad Wilson, an American photographer whose mission is to “bridge the gap between humans and the natural world.” 

Wilson spoke to the IPS on his artistic journey and the philosophy underpinning his work.

“My name is Brad Wilson,” he begins. “I’m an American photographer specializing in classical portraits of animals.”

Classical portraits—usually a domain of human subjects—take on a unique depth when applied to animals.

“I aim to elevate animals to a higher level, presenting them as equals to humans—different but equal. Looking into their eyes through these photographs should invoke a sense of responsibility for their lives because we all share the same planet.”

For Wilson, animals represent a poignant connection to the natural world. “They are our closest relatives living in the wild,” he says. “They serve as a bridge, reminding us of our roots in nature.”

Brad Wilson photographic portraits were commissioned for the Haydar Aliyev Centre in Baku and are on display at the COP29 venue. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

Process: A Dance of Patience and Precision

Creating these portraits is no simple task. Wilson describes the meticulous setup required for his work.

“All the portraits are done in a studio. I set up the studio close to where the animals live—often in sanctuaries or ranches. Then we bring them in for two or three hours,” he says. But those hours yield just fleeting moments of magic.

“I’m lucky if I get two or three good seconds with each animal. But that’s all I need—a single moment of connection that resonates.”

“My photo shoots are like meditations amidst organized chaos,” he says. Amid bustling activity, Wilson remains quiet and still, waiting for the animal to relax. “What I aim to capture is something uncommon—a glimpse of the animal’s soul, if you will. That’s what I hope viewers experience—a moment of connection.”

“I want people to understand that we are part of this planet’s biodiversity. We’re not separate from these creatures. It’s only been about 12,000 years—since the advent of farming and permanent settlements—that we began seeing ourselves as separate from the natural world. That’s a mistake. These animals remind us of our place in the web of life.”

“When we talk about climate action, it’s not just about saving the earth—it’s about saving humanity and the animals that share this planet with us. The earth will endure, but we might not.”

Behind the Scenes at COP29

Wilson’s collection at COP29 was commissioned by the Haydar Aliyev Centre in Baku.

“They brought me here in August to photograph animals in Baku and Shamaki,” he says. The project celebrates Azerbaijan’s biodiversity, showcasing species native to the region while promoting conservation awareness.

The portraits have been a hit among COP29 attendees, sparking conversations about the intersection of art, biodiversity, and climate action. Wilson hopes the images inspire policymakers and the public alike to take meaningful action.

“Climate change is already a massive problem, and it’s only going to worsen. We need to get serious about tackling it.”

Advice for Aspiring Photographers

For those inspired to follow in Wilson’s footsteps, he offers this advice: “Start with humans. I spent 15 years photographing people in New York City before transitioning to animals. That experience taught me about connection and emotion—skills that translate well to wildlife photography.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Adenike Oladosu, ECW’s Climate Champion from Nigeria, during an interview with IPS at COP29. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 20 2024 (IPS)

Education is under threat as multiple crises push children out of school and into harms way. COP29 Baku could break historical barriers that hold back education from playing a unique, critical role to accelerate the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, protecting people and planet from life-threatening risks of climate change.

“Together with our partners, we have launched a pilot program in Somalia and Afghanistan, working with communities to identify early action activities or anticipatory action to act against the impacts of climate and minimize its disruption on children’s lives and education in those countries,” says Dianah Nelson, Chief of Education, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations. 

Towards embedding education into the climate finance debate, ECW held a series of COP29 side events on such issues as unlocking the potential of anticipatory action through multi-stakeholder collaboration; meeting the challenge of conflict, climate and education; climate change-resilient education systems in the most vulnerable nations; and protecting children’s futures: why loss and damage must prioritise education in emergencies.

Panel discussions brought together a wide range of public and private partners, policymakers, and data experts to highlight the benefits of acting ahead of predicted climate shocks to protect education. “The climate crisis is an education crisis, and education cannot wait. We, therefore, need to center climate action on education and build climate-smart school technology. And most importantly, we need anticipatory action to reduce or eradicate the impact of climate shocks on children. Everyone has a contribution to make, and every child has a dream. Uninterrupted access to education makes their dream a reality. We need to safeguard or protect our schools from being vulnerable, or being attacked in conflict, or even being washed away by flood,” Adenike Oladosu, ECW’s Climate Champion and Nigerian climate justice advocate, told IPS.

A member of the audience during one of the sessions hosted by ECW. The sessions highlighted the need to ensure there is funding for education for those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, armed conflict and other emergencies. Credit: ECW

These climatic impacts are already being felt in Pakistan. Zulekha, advisor/program manager of the Gender and Child Cell NDMA Pakistan, spoke about how the country has suffered “severe impacts from extreme weather. More than 24,000 schools were damaged in the 2022 floods, and nearly 3.5 million children were displaced and their educations put at risk. We were still reeling from the effects of the floods in 2023 when we started to launch the refresher of the Pakistan School Safety Framework.”

Oladosu spoke about the multiple, complex challenges confronting Nigeria and that anticipatory action “means bringing in the tools, through climate financing, to reduce the loss and damage. Anticipatory action addresses complex humanitarian crises in a proactive rather than reactive way to reduce the impact of a shock before its most severe effects are felt.”

She stressed that anticipatory actions are critical to avoid “losses that are simply irreplaceable, such as the number of days children spend out of school due to climate events, those left behind the education system, or even those who fall out of the system and into child marriages and militia groups.”

Education must reach every child impacted by a climate crisis they did not make. Credit: UNICEF

Lisa Doughten, Director, Financing and Partnership Division at OCHA, stated that in humanitarian crises, climate change “is significantly disrupting the overall access to education as schools temporarily shut down due to extreme climate events causing significant learning disruptions for millions of students. We have countries in conflict and fragile settings, and the climate crisis creates extremely difficult circumstances for, especially children and women.”

Doughten spoke about the need to leverage data to get ahead of predictable climate disasters and how OCHA works with various partners, including meteorological organizations, to monitor and use climate data. Using models that entail pre-planned programs, pre-determined triggers for weather events such as floods and storms, and pre-financing to ensure that funds are disbursed with speed towards anticipatory actions.

At COP29, ECW reiterated the power of education to unite communities, build consensus, and transform entire societies. In the classroom of the future, children will acquire the green skills they need to thrive in the new economy of the 21st century, and communities will come together to share early warnings and act in advance of climate hazards such as droughts and floods.

Graham Lang, Deputy Director at ECW, at one of the sessions hosted by the Global Fund aimed at ensuring those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, armed conflict and other emergencies are central to climate education action, decisions and commitments. Credit: ECW

Stressing that in this classroom of the future, “an entire generation of future leaders can build the will and commitment to break down the status quo and create true lasting solutions to this unprecedented and truly terrifying crisis. Unfortunately, multilateral climate finance has not prioritized the education sector to date, meaning a tiny proportion, at most 0.03 percent, of all climate finance is spent on education. While children have the most to offer in building long-term solutions to the crisis, they also have the most to lose.”

ECW says the connection between climate action and education is also noticeably underrepresented in NDCs, or national commitments to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Only half of all NDCs are child and youth sensitive, and this is an urgent situation for, in 2022 alone, over 400 million children experienced school closures as the result of extreme weather.

According to the Global Fund, “on the frontlines of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, these disruptions will often push children out of the education system forever. In places like Chad, Nigeria, and Sudan, where millions of children are already out of school, it could impact the future of an entire generation. ECW’s disaster-resilient classrooms, for instance, boosted enrolment rates in Chad.”

Amid Chad’s multidimensional challenges compounded by climate change, climate-resilient classrooms whose construction was funded by ECW and completed in March 2022 meant that classrooms were more durable and accessible for children and adolescents with disabilities. These classrooms withstood the heaviest rainy season in 30 years, triggering widespread flooding. Committing needed finances and acting with speed and urgency means bringing solutions within reach.

Accordingly, ECW says a key step is increasing access to the main climate funds—including the Global Environment Facility and Green Climate Fund—and activating new innovative financing modalities to deliver with speed, depth, and impact, and that the funding needs to be faster, transparent, and fully coordinated across both humanitarian and development sectors.

Looking forward to COP30 in Brazil, ECW stressed that education must play an integral role in the new Loss and Damage Fund. Education losses caused by climate change take unprecedented tolls on societies, especially in countries impacted by conflicts, displacement, and other pressing humanitarian emergencies.

Further emphasizing that the “loss and damage connected with years of lost learning may seem hard to quantify. But we know that for every USD 1 invested in a girl’s education, we see USD 2.80 in return. And we know that education isn’t just a privilege; it’s a human right. Finally, we need to ensure the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance includes a firm commitment to educating all the world’s children. Not just the easy-to-reach, but the ones that are the most vulnerable, the millions whose lives are being ripped apart by a crisis not of their own making.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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On 14-15 November 2024, the OSCE Project Co-Ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz), in co-operation with the National Human Rights Centre (NHRC) of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Main Directorate for the Execution of Punishments, organized a two-day training on Forensic Medical Documentation of torture and ill-treatment according to Istanbul Protocol for employees of the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Forensic Medicine and medical staff of the penitentiary system of Uzbekistan.

The training was aimed at enhancing the skills of forensic experts and medical staff in penitentiary facilities and forensic experts. The course covered key aspects of torture prevention as well as the documentation of torture and ill-treatment cases in line with international standards.

During the training, 30 participants learned about international mechanisms for preventing torture, as well as national legislation in Uzbekistan governing the treatment of those in detention. The main focus was on the Istanbul Protocol, an international document that serves as the standard for the medical documentation of torture. Participants were taught how to correctly identify and document both physical and psychological signs of torture, as well as how to comply with legal and ethical standards when conducting forensic examinations in detention facilities, such as pretrial detention centers and prisons. 

An important part of the training were practical exercises, including interviewing torture victims and learning methods for collecting reliable information. Experts also discussed the trauma and the emotional impact that medical personnel may experience when working with torture victims and strategies for managing such effects.

The event was opened jointly by Akmal Saidov, the First Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and Director of the National Human Rights Centre; PCUz Senior Project Officer Andrew Yurkovsky; Bakhodir Yusupov, the Head of the Medical Department, Penitentiary Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan; and Amriddin Umarov, Deputy Director of the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Forensic Medicine.