Author: |Posted: 9:00 pm on 18/11/09
Category: Faisal Islam on Economics
It’s tough for a fourth child out of five to take seriously the idea that he should never have been born.
But the effect of society’s choices over family size is undoubtedly worth considering in terms of the effect on climate change.
Some close to the Copenhagen negotiations feel that its the elephant in the room.
Certainly population growth is a vital determinant of how much humanity consumes, but not on the official agenda for those urgent talks to limit global carbon emissions.
So a delicate issue, yet today, for the first time the United Nations issued a report linking demographic pressures to climate change.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the UN Population Fund told me today that ‘this is the first time we are clearly speaking about the link between population growth and climate change’.
In 1994 in Cairo the UN did say that population was linked to environment, but this is the first time the body has linked it specifically to climate change.
The report quotes an intriguing study which says that putting the world into a low population growth path, leading to 8 billion rather than 9 billion people on the planet by 2050, would save 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
But it’s not just that: there’s a huge wedge of the world’s population soon to come to child-bearing age … so is the answer for those rapidly growing countries to adopt coercive Chinese-style single child policies?
No, says the UN, this is not about forced population control, but enabling women to decide for themselves to have less children.
Education, empowerment of women, and contraception can all help mitigate climate change, says the report.
Of course almost all the likely growth in world population is happening in developing countries who emit far less Carbon than for example a child in Europe or America.
It’s the process of development that will see that population growth be increasingly carbon intensive.
The middle class in the world – earning at least $8000 a year stands at around 800 million now but is forecast to grow rapidly in the next two decades to 2 billion by 2030.
That’s two billion people who want to fly in planes, drive cars and eat lots of carbon intensive meat.
But that development will also naturally limit population growth as people become richer. so it’s a complex picture.
For now this is a new direction for the UN – the suggestion that condoms aswell as low carbon cars, can limit climate change. But it won’t be discussed in Copenhagen.
Author: |Posted: 11:35 am on 24/09/09
Category: World News Blog
It’s not surprising security is tight at the UN during the general assembly. We all expect to have to stand in long queues to pass through metal detectors at any gathering where Barack Obama is present, especially when he is joined by Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Muammar Gaddafi and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. No wonder there are snipers on top of the nearby hotels and sniffer dogs are roaming the streets.
But now it seems all the security is in the wrong place. The latest US terror alert issued yesterday is not warning of a possible attack against any of the world leaders visiting here or the United Nations itself. The most dangerous places in the city are apparently the sports stadiums. That’s where the police say they are now expecting the next Al Qaeda attack - a ball game is more likely to be hit than tomorrow’s meeting of the security council.
The Feds are warning that an Al-Qaeda training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin … and attacking vital economic centres” as desired targets of the global terror network.
A joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.”
They obviously don’t realise that all of their local law enforcement partners in New York (I assume they include the NYPD) are patrolling the weird array of protests outside the United Nations building.
Still, since it appears that the NYPD accidentally blew the surveilance of a terrorist suspect this month by questioning one of his friends about him, maybe the FBI will be happy if all the cops are kept out of the way.
Author: |Posted: 5:24 pm on 23/09/09
Category: Uncategorized
Quick update on Gaddafi’s accommodation whilst he is enjoying his first visit to New York:
Having been denied permission to erect his huge Bedouin tent anywhere in the city he’s had to sleep in the office block that also serves as Libya’s diplomatic HQ at the UN.
We saw him leave there this morning serenaded by a large anti-Libyan protest. But he has managed to put his tent up. 45 miles away in Bedford, Westchester in upstate New York.
Pictures of the tent - which we assume he wants to use to entertain his pals – have outraged local residents and the local council have issued a “stop work” order on the tents construction but they were too late – the tent is up and we don’t know when it might come down.
It’s in the garden of a huge property owned by Donald Trump. He says it was rented out to “mid east partners” and he’s investigating if they are sub-letting to Libya. Gaddafi will be in good company if he ever gets to visit his tent. The neighbours include designer Ralph Lauren and America’s answer to Delia Smith – Martha Stewart.
We’ll see if the tent remains standing long enough for Gaddafi to be able to invite the neighbours in for tea.
Author: |Posted: 2:47 pm on 23/09/09
Category: World News Blog
It’s a bit of a cheap shot – to ask any of the world leaders at the climate change summit whether they think the 15 car motorcades they drive around in, blocking the streets of Manhattan, send the right message at a summit on global warming.
But of course someone asked it anyway. read more
Author: |Posted: 11:29 am on 07/07/09
Category: Snowblog
Virtually every international operative of any stature was there, in one vast room.
The ‘there’, was here, in Geneva, the UN’s other home. Ban Ki-Moon came in at 9am, spoke for 10 minutes and disappeared. read more
Author: |Posted: 9:16 am on 15/06/09
Category: World News Blog
Somalia is off-limits to most western reporters and five Somali journalists have been killed there so far this year. Aid workers are frequently kidnapped – a million dollars is the going rate to have them released – and four WFP workers have been killed since last August.
So, to put it mildly, this was a difficult investigation to mount, relying heavily on the skills and bravery of the Somali member of our team. read more
Author: |Posted: 6:05 am on 06/02/09
Category: World News Blog
The Israeli government has now picked up on the story of what they’re calling “the school” in Gaza (which I wrote about yesterday). It concerns the UN’s apparent “reversal” of its position over an incident during the war in which 43 people died.
The Israeli prime minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, this morning drew attention to the UN’s “clarification” over this incident in an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme.
It’s the first time that the Israeli government itself has talked about this clarification in the international media. Because what happened in Jabaliya on 6 January is something I’ve looked into in detail, I’d like to clarify a couple of points myself. read more
Author: |Posted: 4:17 am on 05/02/09
Category: World News Blog
A row has broken out between the United Nations and the Israel Defence Force over an incident in Gaza during the 22-day-long war. In the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, a piece announced yesterday that:
“The United Nations has reversed its stance on one of the most contentious and bloody incidents of the recent Israel Defence Forces operation in Gaza, saying that an IDF mortar strike that killed 43 people on 6 January did not hit one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools after all.” read more
