The following keynote speech was delivered by Richard Kinley on 17th June 2021 at the Coalition for the UN We Need‘s online event – ‘Europe and North America Regional Consultation: working together for the world we deserve’. I was asked to give a keynote on UN multilateralism, for which I’d like to thank the…
Reimagine. Recreate. Restore. Those are the watchwords of World Environment Day, an annual day of celebration and contemplation taking place globally on June 5th every year. In 2021, Pakistan is playing host to the official events of the day, which this year also mark the beginning of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. According…
Earlier this year, scientists at the Netherlands-based Wageningen University conducted research that had many buzzing with excitement. After only several hours of meticulous training, a sample of honeybees had learned how to detect Covid-19 infections, within a matter of seconds, due to their keen sense of smell. While this method of detecting Covid-19 will certainly…
Following US President Joe Biden’s recent Leaders Summit on Climate (22-23 April 2021), the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS) assembled a panel of distinguished speakers to discuss the Summit’s most important takeaways, and also to look towards UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow (November 2021). Pilita Clark, the Financial Times’ environmental editor, moderated the discussion,…
Yesterday, as we celebrated Earth Day, forty world leaders gathered for President Biden’s “Leaders Summit on Climate”. The event, held virtually in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions over two days, is a precursor to the UNFCCC COP26 taking place in Glasgow later this year. For such a large event to be organised and held within the…
With the European Union’s publication of its Communication on The European Green Deal in December of 2019, a proposal for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) was promised. The declared intention was to ‘level the economic playing field’ globally and adjust the price of carbon emissions on imported goods to match the EU carbon price. This way ‘carbon leakage’, the relocation of production processes to countries with more lenient greenhouse gas emission…
This Saturday, on 27th March 2021, we mark the 15th annual Earth Hour. At 8:30pm local time, participants across the world will turn off all non-essential lights in their homes and offices in an effort to draw attention to the ongoing climate crisis that is ravaging our planet. The event first took place in Sydney,…
The world’s governments will come together in Glasgow in November to re-energize international cooperation on climate change. The gathering, “COP 26” in its climate negotiations nomenclature, comes at a critical time. Humanity’s response to the climate problem, manifestly now a “crisis”, has fallen far short of what is required, a fact that is increasingly recognized…
As international issues go, climate change is unique in that it will, without exception, impact every single country on Earth. The responsibility for it is therefore shared widely among countries, and the crisis can only be effectively mitigated if there is global cooperation and a unified response. With the threats posed by climate change becoming…
Climate Change – unheard of before the 1950s, is now the most significant issue against which humanity has to fight. Our planet Earth has existed for billions of years and has seen a great number of periodic heating and cooling cycles. However, with the rise of our species, a major change has occurred. In the…
