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Paris unsure about EU Ukraine military aid reimbursement scheme

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 07:00
France argues allowing member states to send voluntary contributions sets dangerous precedent.
Categories: European Union

Spanish centre-right won’t OK von der Leyen Commission if Ribera stays on

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 07:00
Patrido Popular holds Ribera politically responsible for the Valencia tragedy.
Categories: European Union

The Role of the European Algae Biomass Association: Pioneering a Sustainable Future [Promoted content]

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 07:00
The European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) plays a pivotal role in advancing the algae sector across Europe, serving as a crucial platform for collaboration, innovation, and advocacy.
Categories: European Union

Polestar 3 im Blick-Test: Was taugt der Elektro-SUV auf Langstrecken?

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:59
Der Polestar 3 gefällt mit Komfort und Power. Doch seine Leistung an der Ladestation und das Infotainment-System lässt zu wünschen übrig. So werden längere Reisen nicht unbedingt zum Vergnügen.
Categories: Swiss News

German vice-chancellor eyes ‘sovereignty transfer to Brussels’ as he becomes Green lead candidate

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:53
At the conference, the Greens also elected a notably pro-European roster for their new party leadership.
Categories: European Union

Biden allows Ukraine to use US arms to strike inside Russia

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:51
The change comes largely in response to Russia's deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces.
Categories: European Union

George bleibt ohne Skorerpunkt: Miserabler Abend für die NBA-Schweizer

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:50
Sowohl für Clint Capela als auch für Kyshawn George verläuft der Sonntagabend in der NBA alles andere als erfreulich. Besonders für George, der mit seinen Washington Wizards zum achten Mal in Folge verliert.
Categories: Swiss News

EU foreign ministers to debate Borrell’s ‘parting gift’ plan to freeze Israel talks

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:50
Ministers will likely reject Borrell's proposal to suspend formal political dialogue under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Categories: European Union

Negotiations on first British-German treaty on ice, future uncertain

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:45
German snap elections leaves ratification of treaty with "little prospect of success", Euractiv learns from government sources.
Categories: European Union

Hopes set on G20 spurring deadlocked UN climate talks

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:33
Pressure is mounting on G20 leaders to throw their weight behind the stalled process at COP29 in Baku when they meet in Brazil for their annual summit.
Categories: European Union

Kann es überhaupt Frieden geben?: 1000 Tage Ukraine-Krieg – die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:24
1000 Tage Krieg. Die Ukraine verteidigt sich bereits so lange gegen Russland. Eine traurige Bilanz der letzten Jahre und vielleicht ein Lichtblick auf Frieden.
Categories: Swiss News

Falken werden darauf trainiert: In Dubai sammeln Raubvögel verlorene Golfbälle ein

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:01
Um nachhaltiger zu werden, will man in Dubai verlorene Golfbälle effektiver einzusammeln. Nun werden Falken geschickt, um diese aus der Luft aufzuspüren und aufzusammeln. Diese werden im Emirat extra dafür trainiert.
Categories: Swiss News

Wegen offener Rechnung: Handwerker schlagen neues Marmor-Bad kurz und klein

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:01
In den USA demlieren Handwerker ihre eigene Arbeit wegen einer ausstehender Zahlung. Diese Aktion könnte sie teuer zu stehen kommen.
Categories: Swiss News

How can investors navigate the future of marine fuels?

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:00
Though there are various sustainable fuels on the table for shipping, not every option will be viable for every investor, owner or operator.
Categories: European Union

How Musk’s White House appointment could test the EU

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:00
Join host Giada Santana and Euractiv tech editor Eliza Gritski as they unpack the EU’s probe into X, the controversial DOGE commission, and Musk’s growing influence on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Categories: European Union

Peace Talks—Delegates Turn To Climate Summit for Insights Into What Really Makes People Safe

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 05:55

Experts from diverse fields seek answers to the question of what really makes people safe at an event organized by Soka Gakkai International and partners. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 18 2024 (IPS)

At a time when the COP29 summit is primarily focused on climate finance as a tool to cool catastrophically high global temperatures and reverse consequences for all life on earth, delegates—alarmed and concerned by the state of world peace and stability—are seeking ways to enhance safety.Delegates at a side event organized by Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and SGI-UK, British Quakers, Quaker Earthcare Witness, and Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), explored key questions on what climate action approaches contribute to a safer world for people and planet or risk a more unsafe world.

“We are negotiating in this COP for increased finance, yet everyone in this room who is a major fossil fuel extraction country, except Colombia, is increasing their oil and gas extraction. And outside, war is spreading, and finance for the military is at levels higher than at any time since the Cold War. We bring experts from various walks of life into discussions on what really makes us safe,” said event moderator Lindsey Fielder Cook from the Quaker United Nations Office. 

There were experts on techno-fixed reliance and risks to techno-fixed reliance, military spending, peace activists, climate finance in fragile states, and also others who spoke about their lives, faith, and working with youth. They talked about peace, climate finance, and climate action in an existential time and how human activities are also driving existential rates of species extinction and chemical pollution as we know.

Andrew Okem from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and an expert in science adaptation, vulnerability, and impacts observed, “Science has given us a range of actions that we as a society can implement and can contribute towards making our society better and safer for all of us, such as building climate-resilient agri-food systems. This includes diversifying climate-smart coping and climate-smart practices. Rapid decarbonization is critical, hence the need to phase out fossil fuels and a shift to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower.”

Tackling issues of peace and climate finance amid climate and conflict-driven existential threats. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Okem spoke about the need for nature-based solutions, integrated water management, sustainable cities, and inclusive governance and decision-making. Emphasizing that any further delay “in concerted, anticipated global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss this great and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a developed and sustainable future for all.”

Lucy Plummer, member of the international grassroots lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International, which actively engages in society in the areas of peace, culture, and education, said she wanted to “amplify the COP16 message. We need to make peace with nature. I have closely followed discussions, including the round table on the global framework on children, youth, peace, and climate security.”

Saying that it was encouraging that the interconnection of climate and peace is being recognized and that there was great support for this initiative from states and other key stakeholders. But Plummer also felt that the most key issue was not mentioned at all—”our ongoing war with nature. It is a war because there is so much violence in the way that we relate to nature. We urgently need to disarm our ways of thinking about nature.”

“In yesterday’s peace talks and in all of the talks happening all around the COP29, this vital piece of the puzzle is missing. Humans’ separation from nature is the root of the climate crisis, and unless we rectify this and make peace with nature, we simply will not have the wisdom needed to resolve this crisis and prevent so much suffering. The Indigenous peoples know it and have been coming to these COPs every year trying to get us to understand this. Their messages have not changed. They get it, but for some reason we are not ready to hear it or we do not want to hear it.”

Dr. Duncan McLaren, a research fellow from the UCLA School of Law and an expert in technofixes and ethical mitigation options, spoke about his research that explores the justice and political implications of global technologies, including carbon removal. His recent work explores the geopolitics of geoengineering and the governance of carbon removal techniques in the context of net zero policy goals.

“Climate insecurity is all around us. We’ve seen floods, wildfires, droughts, and storms. Clearly, emissions cuts alone can no longer avert dangerous climate change. It is wishful thinking that we can avoid reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius with just more emissions at 8,000. So that is why I have been looking at other technologies and how they might work. Carbon removal can contribute to climate repair, the repair of humanity’s relationship with the earth,” McLaren emphasized.

“Carbon removal techniques can help us counterbalance recalcitrant emissions to achieve net zero. And more importantly, deal with the unfairly generated legacy of excess emissions. But as Professor Corrie and I show in our briefing paper for the Quaker UN Office, they will only make us safer if we keep the tasks they ask us to do small. Emissions need to be cut by 95 percent.”

Harriet Mackaill-Hill from International Alert spoke about climate, conflict, and finance and the need to define the COP29 New Collective Quantified Goal through these lenses.  She said the linkages between “climate and conflict are well established. While climate is never the sole cause of conflict, it is very much a stressor. Climate will exacerbate various stressors for conflict. These can be human security, food security, or competition over natural resources, which will in turn very much create and worsen conflict. How can people adapt to the impacts of climate change when in extreme vulnerability, sometimes conflict, when livelihoods or lives are at stake?”

Deborah Burton, co-founder of Tipping Point North South, spoke about the intersection between military spending and climate finance. Giving a perspective on what makes people unsafe in terms of military spending and military missions, she said there is a need to understand “the scale of global military missions in peacetime and war and the associated scale of military spending that enables those missions.”

“They combine to achieve one thing and one thing only: the undermining of human safety in this climate emergency. So, the estimated global military carbon footprint, and it is an estimate because it’s not fully reported by any stretch of the imagination, is estimated to be at 5.5 percent of total global emissions. This is more than the combined annual emissions of the 54 nations of the African continent. It is twice as much as emissions of civilian aviation, and that estimate does not include conflict-related emissions.”

Shirine Jurdi spoke of her lived experience from Lebanon linking to climate finance. She said, “There is no climate justice during war, and there is no ecological justice during war. With every bomb that drops, the land, the sea, and the people suffer irreparable harm.”

Stressing that “safety is not only about survival and its destruction. It is about thriving in peace under skies that are blue, not filled with smoke or phosphorus bombs. To create a safer world, let’s stop colonization and redirect resources from destruction to building sustainable, productive communities. Let us invest in ecological peacebuilding and restore the lands and the ecosystems damaged by conflict.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Categories: Africa

Selenski sauer wegen Langstrecken-Leak: «Solche Dinge werden nicht angekündigt»

Blick.ch - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 05:17
Die Ukraine soll US-Langstreckenraketen gegen russisches Kernland einsetzen dürfen. Dies schreiben US-Medien. Wolodimir Selenski zeigt sich irritiert über die Berichte. Auch aus Russland kam eine Reaktion – dort spricht man inzwischen vom Dritten Weltkrieg.
Categories: Swiss News

Maintain current patent protection baseline, says Czech innovative pharma head

Euractiv.com - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 02:28
The European Union's pharmaceutical reforms must maintain the current patent protection baseline, says David Kolář, executive director of the Czech Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry. Kolář spoke in-depth with Euractiv's Aneta Zachová.
Categories: European Union

Who wins when Nigeria's richest man takes on the 'oil mafia'?

BBC Africa - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 01:30
Having built a $20bn oil refinery, Aliko Dangote is now at the heart of a row in the murky industry.
Categories: Africa

Who wins when Nigeria's richest man takes on the 'oil mafia'?

BBC Africa - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 01:30
Having built a $20bn oil refinery, Aliko Dangote is now at the heart of a row in the murky industry.
Categories: Africa

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