Posts tagged with 'United Nations'
The long-awaited COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has come to a close, making important progress in a number of areas — but not enough. The world still remains off track to beat back the climate crisis. Recognizing the urgency ...
This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations – an institution created in the wake of World War II, when the world was looking to emerge from a tragic era filled with conflict and political and economic turmoil. ...
The UN Climate Action Summit in New York this week saw strengthened national climate commitments from 67 countries, but a disappointing showing from the world’s major economies. As national governments fall short, cities must continue to be climate champions. Indeed, ...
World leaders will soon gather in New York City for a summit on an urgent challenge that affects every aspect of our lives, from the economy to jobs, security and migration and our health. It is, of course, the climate crisis. The tens of thousands of fires recently afflicting the ...
Most people now live in cities and cities are growing rapidly. We are living in the midst of the urbanization age, an age that started in earnest at the beginning of the 19th century, when people first decided en masse ...
This past Wednesday (October 7) marked the celebration of the fifteenth annual International Walk to School Day. Schools in more than 40 countries across the globe participated in the event—including the U.S., Turkey, Brazil and China—encouraging students to walk with ...
This weekend, from September 25 – 27, more than 150 world leaders will convene in New York City for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit to develop the new sustainable development goals (SDGs). This agreement will serve as the foundation ...
Participation, Transparency and Efficiency: the True Indicators of Modernization in the 21st Century
When I was a kid growing up in Brazil, all governments in Latin America were right-wing military dictatorships. Today they are all center-left wing democracies—seemingly representing extraordinary progress. However, socio-economic indicators and trust in government have hardly improved. In the ...
Energy efficiency improvements in the building sector can yield significant financial and environmental benefits including reduced energy costs, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, improved occupant health and increased local employment. However, long standing market and policy barriers stand in the way ...
Though our planet is home to one hundred and ninety independent nations, the UN Climate Conference in Paris this December reminds us that all countries share a single, collective future. Indeed, in order to keep the global temperature rise from ...
Foreword: The upcoming United Nations Climate Summit comes at a critical time for cities worldwide. Cities already account for 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and between 2011 and 2030, urban areas are expected to gain 1.4 billion people. ...
At the 2012 Rio+20 Summit, the United Nations member states began the ambitious process of defining the social and economic priorities for humanity over the next fifteen years. The open and participatory process and the initial negotiations amongst the world’s ...
According to the United Nations, temperatures are likely to warm anywhere from 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, and scientists warn that “the world is ill-equipped to deal with the impacts of warming.” To help the lives impacted by ...
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the third Global Road Safety Week occurred in April 2014. The third Global Road Safety week is planned for 2015. Already there are 1.2 million traffic-related deaths per year worldwide. ...
José Viegas, Secretary General of the International Transport Forum, on how to reduce traffic deaths
Traffic figures in Brazilian cities reflect a real civil war – on average, 109 people die every day and about 1,000 are injured in streets throughout the country. Just this past year, more than 40,000 died and 40 billion dollars were ...
