PlanetNext

With the Kyoto Protocol’s expiration in 2012, we’ve taken emissions data from the UN and PBL to assess its impact so far. Sadly, the data show that while there have been more successes than failures amongst nations with Kyoto targets, global emissions as a whole have continued to soar.

Our colleague Luca Faccio recently returned from a visit to North Korea with a wealth of new photos and video footage showing a country in the throes of change. During a lengthy interview aired on 25 September by Austrian state television ORF (http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/1225-ZIB-24), Faccio stated that North Korea is undergoing “small but significant steps” in [...]

(Amnesty International) – Journalists working in traditional media outlets from Pakistan to Colombia, Mexico to Sudan plus most nations across Eastern Europe and the Middle East faced harassment, attacks, unfair imprisonment or even death just for doing their job. Americas Reporters trying to expose abuses of power, human rights violations and corruption are frequent targets [...]

Globalized food systems and the spread of Western lifestyles has spawned an international public health disaster with over a billion people suffering from undernourishment while another billion remain overweight or obese, an independent United Nations expert warned today. “Our food systems create sick people,” said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right [...]

As the world prepares for the 2012 Olympics, the Saudi government is systematically discriminating against women in sports and physical education, and has never sent a female athlete to the Olympics, with no penalty from the international Olympic authorities, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the [...]

(New York) – Vetoes by Russia and China of the UN Security Council resolution on Syria are a betrayal of the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. A resolution urging the Syrian government to end all human rights violations and cooperate with the UN commission of inquiry and the Arab League observer mission was [...]

As the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All kicked off today, United Nations officials called on governments, the private sector and civil society to help expand energy access, improve efficiency and increase the use of renewables. Globally, one person in five still lacks access to modern electricity and twice that number – three billion [...]

A new United Nations mobile telephone application released today lets users calculate their carbon footprint, visualize its equivalent in a particular ecosystem, and learn new ways in which they can reduce their emissions through specific actions. Through the so-called Blue and REDD Carbon application, users can input the details of their journeys taken by air, [...]