Africa: How Finance Can Be Part of the Solution to the World’s Biodiversity Crisis

[ad_1] More than half of the world's total GDP is at least moderately dependent on nature. Yet arguably, there is no economy (or life) without nature. A quarter of animal and planet species are now threatened, and 14 out of 18 key ecosystem services - including fertile soils to grow food, flood and disease control and regulation of air and water pollution - are in decline. These ecosystem services are essential and have no easy substitutes. Despite this, almost US$7 […]

October 24, 2024 1

Africa

Africa: IMF Isn’t Doing Enough to Support Africa – Billions Could Be Made Available Through Special Drawing Rights

[ad_1] At the 2021 UN Climate Summit, Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley called for more and better use of special drawing rights (SDRs), the International Monetary Fund's reserve asset. The special drawing right is an international reserve asset created by the IMF. It is not a currency - its value is based on a basket of five currencies, the biggest chunk of which is the US dollar, followed by the euro. It is a potential claim on the freely usable […]

October 24, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Climate Change Worsened Deadly Floods in African Regions, Scientists Say

[ad_1] Devastating rains that triggered floods in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan in recent months - killing hundreds of people and displacing millions - were worsened by human-caused climate change, a team of international scientists announced Wednesday. Global warming made the seasonal downpours this year about 5-20 percent more intense across the Niger and Lake Chad basins, said World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of scientists studying the link between climate change and extreme weather. In a study published […]

October 23, 2024 1

Africa

Africa: Ethical Framework Aims to Counter Risks of Geoengineering Research

[ad_1] Pressure for climate intervention may gain momentum as world heats up As interest grows in geoengineering as a strategy for tackling global warming, the world's largest association of Earth and space scientists today launched an ethical framework as a guide to responsible decision-making and inclusive dialogue. The report, facilitated by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and advised by a global panel of experts, says any research into large-scale interventions in Earth's climate system must be grounded in sound ethical […]

October 23, 2024 3

Africa

Africa: Svalbard Global Seed Vault Deposit Bolsters Food Security Amid Crises

[ad_1] Longyearbyen, Svalbard — The Svalbard Global Seed Vault received yesterday a deposit of more than 30,000 new seed samples from 23 depositors across 21 countries, including seven international genebanks. This marks the largest number of depositors since the Seed Vault received samples from a record-breaking 35 genebanks in 2020, underscoring the urgent global effort to conserve crop diversity in the face of escalating climate change, conflict, and other crises. The deposit includes first-time contributions from genebanks in Bangladesh, Bolivia, […]

October 23, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Capacity Building Is Key to Africa’s Digital Sequencing Success Story

[ad_1] Bulawayo — Christian Tiambo has always wished to uplift local farmers' communities through cutting-edge science. As climate change wreaked havoc on local agriculture, Tiambo, a livestock scientist at the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), focused on conserving and developing livestock that could withstand environmental stress. Genomics, a Game Changer Tiambo's research took an exciting turn when part of his PhD studies was to characterize and establish local poultry […]

October 22, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Cop or Con? How Big Conservation Captured Biodiversity Protection

[ad_1] There are two approaches to protecting biodiversity. One is colonial, abusive and ineffective, but hugely profitable for certain actors. Some 31 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came into force, the latest Conference of the Parties - as the regular jamborees of governments, NGOs and others with a stake in these conventions are known - starts this week in the bustling Colombian city of Cali. This one, COP16, is particularly important as it's supposed to resolve some […]

October 22, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: The Future of Food Security Lies Beyond COP29’s Negotiation Tables

[ad_1] Asuncion, Paraguay — Climate change has thrown our food systems into chaos. Extreme weather events and dramatic climate variations are hammering food production and supply chains across the world. As global leaders gear up for COP29, there's plenty of buzz about climate action. But can we really expect these slow-moving, bureaucratic negotiations to deliver tangible and swift results to decarbonize and insulate our agri-food systems? Most likely not. But do not despair. While the COP29 talks unfold, crucial climate […]

October 22, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: World Takes Crucial Step to Make Peace with Nature

[ad_1] With some 23,000 pre-registered delegates representing almost every country on Earth, today's ceremonial opening of the 16th Conference of the Parties under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16) marks the arrival of a critical moment for biodiversity. Following COP 15's historic adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in 2022, the two-week meeting in Cali is expected to be a defining event in implementation of the framework's ambitious goals and 23 targets for 2030, including protection […]

October 21, 2024 2

Climate