A Unique GEO for MEROSUR
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Last month a GEO for the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR or MERCOSUL) was finally unveiled with much fanfare by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the meeting of MERCOSUR Environment Ministers. What’s a GEO? It’s probably the best known type of comprehensive environmental diagnosis available. “GEO” was the acronym for “Global […]
UNEP/CARICOM: Drastic Climate Change Consequences for Insular Caribbean / PNUMA/CARICOM: drásticas consecuencias por cambio climático en el Caribe Insular
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Although this report (English only) was finished in October, it was formally unveiled at the global climate change talks in Poland in November, but did not get much media play because of all the other actions, initiatives, reports and declarations made in Poznan at the same time. But it deserves much more attention and hopefully […]
Satellite Monitoring of Climate Change Impacts for 3 LAC Nations
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Mostly lost in all the media coverage of the recent climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland was this announcement from the UN Development Programme (UNDP). I’m glad to hear that this initiative includes Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, particularly since the latter two cannot afford on their own this sort of satellite monitoring. Why, I wonder, […]
Progress Towards the Health MDGs in LAC / Progreso hacia los ODM relacionado con la salud en ALC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Recently 14 United Nations (UN) agencies* released a report (English, Spanish) reviewing the status of efforts of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations toward meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report addresses the following health-specific MDGs: reducing the under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by […]
Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”
Monday, December 15th, 2008While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up, and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]
A New Strategic Framework on Forests and Climate Change / Un nuevo marco estratégico sobre bosques y cambio climático
Thursday, December 11th, 2008From the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Forestry takes on the climate change challenge Global organizations team up to ensure contribution of forests To ensure that sustainably managed forests play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of climate change, a new strategic framework is being launched jointly by 14 international organizations* known […]
More LAC Nations Covered by Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008Temas Note: When the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility was first officially announced by the World Bank a few months ago, only five Latin American nations (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama) were to participate. Because of strong interest in the Facility, it has been decided recently to expand its developing country participants, and as a […]
First Destination for UNEP’s Green Passport Program: Brazil
Monday, October 13th, 2008The international community is about to launch a “Green Passport” program to promote “sustainable holidays,” and guess where the concept is being field tested first: a small colonial era town in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state, Paraty. The Green Passport is a project of the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development (ITF-STD) created […]
Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria / Criterios Globales de Turismo Sostenible
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Temas Observation: I was favorably inclined toward this exercise because of the involvement of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Conservation International (CI) and secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), but was less impressed that Ted Turner endorsed it, still unsure what to think about the Rainforest Alliance‘s efforts […]
Red de Consumo y Producción Sustentables para América Latina y Caribe
Monday, August 25th, 2008Synopsis in English: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the State Environment Secretary of São Paulo (SMA) and the Environmental Sanitation Technology Company (CETESB) (São Paulo’s technical environment agency) recently signed a cooperation agreement aimed at launching the Network of Information and Training in Sustainable Consumption and Production for Latin America and the Caribbean (Red de […]
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