The weeklong United Nations Environment Assembly began in Nairobi on Monday with a moment of silence for the 149 victims aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, which crashed near its origination at Addis Ababa on Sunday with dozens of UN staffers, global delegates and participants on board. Acting UN Environment director…
On Monday morning at 10 a.m., the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) based in Nairobi will begin the first plenary session of the UN Environment Assembly – and they’ll do so with empty seats. That’s because according to estimates, up to 50 passengers aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, which crashed…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Britain’s Prince Charles, speaking in Ghana during his three-nation tour of West Africa, praised the progress of the nation while addressing the painful history of its colonial past. “The histories of our two nations are, I know, closely intertwined, and while today we enjoy shared opportunity, we can never forget…
Among the first heads of state to congratulate Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Monday was President João Lourenço of Angola, leader of one of the six Lusophone nations in Africa that share membership in the Portuguese-speaking community (CPLP) and its most influential. Lourenço said he hopes the Bolsonaro victory will…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Disasters such as earthquakes and floods have killed 1.3 million people over the last 20 years and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless or in need of humanitarian aid, United Nations experts said on Wednesday. In many of those situations, climate change is making matters worse, the UN said….
A key climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released Monday warns that the global community must act decisively and dramatically to try and limit catastrophic impacts from climate change – and that some impacts remain unavoidable even if global warming is held to the 1.5°C level….
Music icon John Legend headlined this year’s Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Saturday, joining other celebrities and leaders in appealing for action on global poverty, climate change and other pressing issues. The concert, planned to coincide each year with the United Nations General Assembly, is the final…
For much of this summer, the topics of environmental crisis and climate change have exploded into the news cycles of the developed world with the same frightening alacrity as the floods and wildfires forcing the headlines. Storms and rain at the weekend have broken a historic heat wave in the…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Climate change is “inextricably linked to some of the most pressing security challenges of our time,” said Nigerian Amina Mohammed, the United Nations deputy secretary-general, during remarks made to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. During the last 18 months, the Security Council has recognized the adverse effects of climate…
As the world marks United Nations World Environment Day, there are more than 1,000 events planned across the African continent as countries and their citizens embrace the #beatplasticpollution theme. “Our world is swamped by harmful plastic waste,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres in a video marking the June 5 event….
Asfawossen Asrat is professor of geology, School of Earth Sciences at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Nelson Torto is executive director at The African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, Kenya. What they have in common – along with 10 other scientists from the Global South – is a concern over…
If you ask most tourists what defines Southwest Florida, a top United States vacation destination, they’ll likely point to the seashells of Sanibel Island or the tony Naples community. They come for the beaches and the golf courses, they stay for the winter or, for thousands of them, they come…
With the stroke of a pen, African heads of state gathered in Kigali, Rwanda on March 21, 2018, signed off on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deal – which some pundits have characterised as the largest free trade agreement since the World Trade Organization. This signing comes at…
Dr. Richard Munang is currently the United Nations Environment Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator.
It isn’t climate change that will increase the frequency of civil war in Africa as a result of food scarcity, according to a study recently published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Rather, it’s the abundance of food that attracts armed actors and creates an incentive for controlling resources. “Understanding…
Malawi launched its new five-year development plan on Tuesday during a ceremony at Kamuzu Palace, the State House in Lilongwe. The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III emphasizes climate priorities, alongside agriculture and water resources, in a vision that runs through 2022 and builds on the previous version. It…