The United Nations has released a new report on managing disaster risk ahead of the International Day for Disaster Reduction to be marked on Friday. Robert Glasser, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, presented the report this week while noting that in the last two…
Music icon Stevie Wonder headlined this year’s Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Saturday, joining other celebrities, companies and world 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 story of summer in the World’s northern hemisphere is that it’s hot. Too hot. The current weather warnings continue for southeastern Europe, where temperatures reached 42.3 degrees Celsius in Croatia, and 42 degrees in Spain and Italy. For many Europeans, the heat wave hearkens memories of Europe’s 2003 heat…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
In the quest to better understand marine ecosystems and climate, South Africa and Brazil will partner with the European Union to study the Atlantic Ocean shared by their nations. The South Atlantic Research and Innovation Flagship Initiative was launched in July at the Belém Tower in Lisbon. The program is…
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday that the United States was pulling out of the Paris climate accord, there was no shortage of responses from the international community or, for that matter, from American business leaders and local and state governments. The rest of the world expressed…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
World Health organization officials say an “unprecedented” outbreak of cholera in Somalia is linked to the drought that began in October 2016, creating widespread shortages of clean drinking water and food. There are more than 40,000 suspected cases since the beginning of the year, with nearly 700 deaths to date,…
Much of the world waited Thursday to hear what United States President Donald Trump would say about the American commitment to the Paris Accord, not necessarily because the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement promised during his 2016 campaign would be a surprise. Rather, they needed to hear how Trump articulated a…
For island nations like Kirabati in the Pacific Ocean, climate change poses an existential threat – and reducing that risk was the topic of a meeting in Mexico on Monday, ahead of the biennial 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction held this week. Dozens of representatives of the world’s…
Environmental champion Youba Sokona’s resignation is effective April 30, so as of Sunday the Malian scholar will no longer serve in his leadership role at the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI). At first glance, it may seem hardly newsworthy and entirely forgivable to not know who Sokona and the AREI…
As part of the global effort to combat climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued its first annual Airborne Dust Bulletin to better understand how dust and sand storms impact humans – and how humans contribute too. “Every year, an estimated 2,000 million tons of dust is emitted into…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Mali has become the first country to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a commitment to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and their impact on global warming. “We urge more countries to follow suit in order to protect our climate,” said Erik Solheim, Head of United Nations Environment, in…
South African President Jacob Zuma welcomed participants to the United Nations World Water Day summit in Durban on Wednesday, to begin a three-day conference on global water resources. The meeting served as launch for the 2017 World Water Development Report, with its emphasis on waste water resources and their recapture….
New African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat officially begins his role Tuesday, as outgoing chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma comes to the end of her tenure in Addis Ababa. Moussa Faki, the foreign minister of Chad who previously served as the nation’s prime minister, has said he will make the…
A South African hospital has suspended some services and limited its admissions to critical patients only because of a water shortage, adding to the woes that the country’s drought and usage patterns have created. A health department spokesman said that at Themba Hospital in Kabokweni, not far from Kruger National…
The adoption rate for smartphones across the African continent has swelled to 226 million phones, and that’s expected to nearly triple by 2020. The GSMA, a British industry organization for mobile operators across the world, says much of that is in the advanced markets of Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa –…