Tag: United Nations

The European Parliament has agreed to rules that would prevent EU companies, particularly in the pharmaceuticals sector, from exploiting the natural resources of the world's indigenous communities by recognising their 'intellectual property rights' over local biodiversity.

Prime Minister David Cameron was forced yesterday (28 August) to push back his plans for an imminent military strike against Syria in a humiliating climb-down for Britain's leader after coming under fierce domestic and international pressure.

It has no regular airline schedule, no first-class lounge and flies only to isolated areas prone to conflict or natural disaster. Backed by EU financing, a special United Nations aviation service flies only to the frontline of humanitarian need. EurActiv reports from the Paris Air Show.

Governments are on track to meet four of the 21 targets set out in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 deadline, the lead author of the World Bank’s 2013 Global Monitoring Report told EurActiv.

SPECIAL REPORT / Faced with a worsening drought and food crisis in Africa’s Sahel region last year, the United Nations got a sudden infusion of EU cash to provide nutritional help to 1.5 million pregnant women and children.

An architect of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has warned that the European Union runs the risk of overreach as it tries to shape the future international anti-poverty agenda.

The European Commission's proposals for future global development goals, to be unveiled on Wednesday (27 February), risk running into opposition from emerging countries if they veer too broadly from fighting poverty.

Coordinating aid action amongst 27 EU countries is difficult but necessary for progress, says Jean-Michel Severino, a member of the UN expert panel charged with defining the world's development goals post-2015.

SPECIAL REPORT / Nearly six months after the Rio+20 global environment summit, the jury is still out on whether greener growth can truly happen. In the absence of major commitments by participating countries, EU officials were left placing their hopes on voluntary agreements by industry sectors, including plastics and PVC. But can those deliver?

The United Nations is committed to sustainable development to promote wealth creation and structural change in developing economies. This includes expanding access to energy, says Kandeh K. Yumkella of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

A United Nations body has found that the European Union has failed in its commitments towards transparency and public participation in renewable energy policies - a move which has been hailed as a victory by wind farm opposition groups.

At a time when pressure is coming on the UN to find solutions to the global issues such as Syria and Iran - and to reform of itself - the EU's UN ambassador explains how the EU is playing its part.

The international target to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water has been met, five years before the 2015 deadline, the UN announced on today (6 March).

The European Union hopes to persuade Palestinian leaders to drop plans for full United Nations membership this month in return for a nuanced upgrading of their UN observer status, EU diplomats said yesterday (15 September).

Enough talking: for the sake of credibility, countries have to start real negotiations to reform the United Nations Security Council, said Joseph Deiss, president of the UN General Assembly, in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

The "upgrade" of the EU's representation in the UN General Assembly will lead to a more coherent EU foreign policy and encourage other regional organisations to raise their profile as well, predicts Eberhard Rhein, a lecturer on economic policy at the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies in Malta.

Aid is being increasingly driven by donors' political, economic or military objectives rather than prioritising the needs of its recipients, according to Ross Mountain, the UN secretary-general's deputy special representative to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Committing political will and a small fraction of the world's financial resources to protecting biodiversity would bring indispensable long-term benefits, argues Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London.

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the foremost organiser for human rights and democracy in China would reaffirm the values held most dearly by mankind, writes Xu Youyu, philosopher, professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and holder of the Olof Palme Chair, Sweden for 2001-2002.

Four nations led by China pledged on Sunday to meet an end-month deadline to submit action plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and challenged rich countries to come up with funding to help fight global warming.

There is a 60-70% chance that Serbia will have a democratic pro-European government by the end of June, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic assured journalists in Brussels on 12 June.

Gathered for the first major climate talks since the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali last year, delegates from 162 countries agreed on a timetable for the conclusion of a global climate pact by December 2009.

Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and hydrofluorocarbons had already reached critical levels in 2005, ten years earlier than expected, according to climate scientist Tim Flannery who was citing figures due to be released by the UN next month.