If you’re looking for bad news on international development, then look no further than climate change. Energy-related carbon emissions have reached an all-time high. Global warming effects are coming through more quickly and more severely than anticipated. There is a growing risk that advances in human development will be thrown into reverse gear, with increased exposure to drought, floods and extreme weather reinforcing poverty traps.
What with talk of shell companies, beneficial ownership and financial regulation it’s tough to work out exactly what’s at stake in the G8 talks on tax and transparency. Throw in a vocabulary that comes with the dark arts of tax evasion – the ‘Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich’ problem is a personal favourite - and you’re heading into the near-impenetrable fog of summit negotiations.
The list of competing priorities for this year’s G8 summit was whittled down to three by David Cameron.
Logging remains a problem, with often illegal activity taking place across the country. West Kilimanjaro
License: Creative Commons
Credit: Robert Okanda BCClimate Champions
Source: Flickr
This workshop will examine how interventions in the environmental sector can be utilised as an entry point to improve security, justice, and democratic participation of civil society in fragile states. RSVP by 7 June to wcseurope@wcs.org to guarantee a place.
It’s easy to be cynical about G8 summits. But, as David Cameron prepares to host the annual meeting of leaders from the world’s richest countries in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, the British government has a unique opportunity to provide leadership on issues at the heart of global poverty and inequality – and to restore the credibility of the G8 in global economic governance.
Pakistan has emerged on the other side of its first attempt to transfer power from one civilian government to another through the ballot box (relatively) successfully.