AAD2024: Is there enough action to combat climate change? Conversation with Nitin Desai
Economist who popularised “sustainable development”, discusses the political consensus during the Rio Summit and the future …
‘Environment ministries in most countries are still led by junior politicians’
Despite global consensus on the climate emergency, action remains inadequate, says economist Nitin Desai
Walkmans and burgers: the primal market
The late founder editor of Down To Earth on environmental truths that endure to this day, over three decades later
The road from Stockholm to Rio
It was the Stockholm conference, held exactly 20 years ago, which put environmental issues on the global agenda for the first time. But the …
Three brackets to Johannesburg
An inconclusive Bali PrepCom meet only takes confusion and procrastination to Rio +10
Consuming to sustain?
At UNCED, the North tried using the facile argument that their larger consumption actually provided trade and jobs for the poorer South. But …
CSD must become a forum for debate
New Zealand's minister for the environment Simon Upton is the chairperson of the seventh session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (…
Green funds dry up for developing countries
With the US halving its contribution to the Global Environment Facility, the oldest green fund sees first budget cut in 27 years, hurting the …
Focus shifts to N-plant revamp
Environmental issues took a backseat at the recent G-7 meet where the main concern was the business of revamping Soviet-built nuclear power plants
Blending green concerns into market economy
GERMAN environment minister Klaus Topfer has come under fire for his tough green laws such as the one against packaging. Environmental ministries,…
Panel to smooth North-South squabbles on GEF
A special committee is being set up to solve clashes between the industrialised and developing countries over national and international gains in …
Convention on biological diversity
Aid cuts will defeat objectives of Agenda 21
WITH HUGE reductions in aid already under way and further cuts to follow soon, transfer of resources remains the most contentious issue in …
Mining industry makes all-out bid to send right signals before WSSD
Going slow
A new world order taking shape
Proponents have turned their backs to the idea of unfettered global trade; how will new globalisation rules take shape in a climate-risked and war-…
20 years to…where?
Taking stock of biodiversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity, 20 years on, is still struggling to stem the precipitous decline in biodiversity. After missing the 2010 …
Biodiversity governance: A mix of knowledge and forest management for benefit sharing
People’s biodiversity register a roadmap for forest management plans; it documents knowledge of status, history, ongoing changes and …
Biodiversity governance: Access and benefit sharing and its implications on agricultural resources
A special instrument for access to crop genetic resources, access and benefit sharing (ABS) system, is fraught with challenges
Biodiversity governance: The agreements and laws that help enforce it
Major legally binding conventions to protect nature were adopted at the Rio Summit where several countries came together amid rapidly …