An estimated 1 million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction within decades and the threats to their survival are accelerating, according to a much-anticipated report on biodiversity from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem…
President Xi Jinping of China, speaking Friday at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, focused on sustainable global development as he assured world leaders that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aligns with their own initiatives. “From the Eurasian continent to Africa, the Americas and…
Sudan and Nigeria are among countries in the world where economic growth already has been most damaged by global warming, according to new research from Stanford University in the United States. The research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), also listed Brazil, India…
As Africa Climate Week wraps up in Ghana comes news that two climate champions from the continent – climate change director Anthony Nyong at African Development Bank and African Union agronomist Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko of Angola, above – were named in the top tier of the “Climate 100.” This…
Students in Kenya marched to the edge of the Karura Forest in Nairobi to demand action on climate change, joining young people in 123 countries who participated in Friday’s Climate Strike – a massive undertaking in more than 2,000 cities. “Every single person who came out to march today is…
By Naza Alakija, Flourish Africa Climate change and issues relating to it has recently been at the forefront of much public debate. Nations globally are implementing new policies to win the race against climate change whilst others (a minority) neglect to acknowledge that it is actually happening. The United Nations…
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is leading a project to measure the long term effects of humans on global warming, with a view toward reducing impacts on Africans and Global South populations. UCT African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) director Professor Mark New is co-leader of a team that…
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has named 10 breakthrough technologies that will help to reinvent the future, and listed them in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Review article published Wednesday. Gates said he first thought of the plow, in use since 4000 BCE, while contemplating how technologies create…
More than 60 million people were affected by extreme weather and natural hazards last year, including floods in Nigeria and drought in Kenya, according to an analysis of 281 events. Flooding continues to impact the most people – more than half the total, although earthquake and tsunami accounted for the…
There’s a direct link between climate change and public health in Lesotho, according to the findings of an intriguing study from ICAP at Columbia University in the United States and its partners. The authors led by Dr. Andrea J. Low, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School…
From flooding to drought, countries across the African continent experience climate change in environmentally and economically diverse settings – but what do its citizens really think about it? The Ghana-based Afrobarometer research organization checked in with five different countries for their 2018 reports, from West Africa to the south, and…
The World Bank’s 2018 Year in Review report offers insights on global trends, with 14 charts to present the visual data – and the African continent is at the center of a few key metrics as we head into 2019. “Extreme poverty is at the lowest level in recorded history…
Africa is at a “tipping point” as global warming increases, and urgent action needs to be taken across the continent now, according to a new report from the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) released at COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of UNDP’s Africa Bureau, said that while many African nations…
No more beating around the bush. That’s the message from Namibia, and from African climate activists and negotiators more broadly, as they head to Katowice, Poland, for the COP24 meeting. Formally known as the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the annual…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The United Nations Environment Program on Tuesday issued the latest in what’s been a flurry of reports on climate change and global greenhouse gas emissions progress, ahead of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) meeting in Poland next week. The “emissions…