TORONTO, Canada, Dec 23 (IPS) – Do you sometimes feel like a hamster on a wheel or stuck on a runaway train hurtling toward the abyss? No matter what metaphor we choose for our world looking back in 2024, rainbows do not come to mind easily.
The war and conflict, which had already begun in earnest a year ago, has worsened, resulting in horrific violence against civilians, especially women and children, and displacing millions of people. Gaza Strip, Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sahel, Haiti. The long list is getting longer.
The COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, ostensibly sought to find agreement on how to tackle the global climate crisis. The two-week negotiations, covered in detail by IPS, almost broke down and ended in complete failure.
With 2024 expected to be the hottest year on record on Earth, a meaningful Baku agreement on climate finance for poor countries is once again stymied by major powers and geopolitical competition vying for responsibility against a backdrop of already rising debt. I received it. .
In the words of Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank, the rich world is staging a “mass exodus from Baku, with no real money and vague and inexplicable promises to mobilize funds.” It was. (We might add that major emitters like China and India, who project power and wealth but refuse to be defined as ‘rich’, also got off to a light start in Baku.)
A dispute over funding for the new fund also derailed the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, where exhausted delegates failed to reach an agreement.
In a major blow to countries trying to prevent mass extinction of species, the countries failed to agree on a new framework for monitoring progress to address biodiversity loss.
A groundbreaking new report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says that to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and protect life on Earth, deep, fundamental changes to the way people view and interact with the natural world are urgently needed. I warn you that you need it.
IPBES Assessment report on the root causes of biodiversity loss, determinants of change, and options for achieving the 2050 vision for biodiversity – Also known as the Transformative Change Report – Created based on the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment ReportWe have discovered that the only way to achieve global development goals is through transformational change, and IPBES 2022 valuation report.
Organizations such as OCHA, IOM and WHO, important in terms of their contribution to humanity but confined to the sidelines of these large power organizations, act as harbingers of doom as they attempt to carry out essential repair and maintenance work amidst the rubble.
Greg Puley, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) climate team, called for ambitious and fair global climate finance targets at COP29. “This year alone, we have seen devastating floods in the Sahel, extreme heat waves in Asia and Latin America, and droughts in southern Africa,” he told IPS.
Additionally, appeals from Israel last November to stop its attacks on northern Gaza were ignored. Fifteen UN and other humanitarian groups have described the crisis there as “apocalyptic.” In that context, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the second round of polio vaccination in the Gaza Strip was partially successful.
Nearly 70% of those killed in the war in Gaza were women and children, according to an analysis by the United Nations Human Rights Office.
“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on November 6. “More journalists have reportedly been killed in four weeks than in any conflict in at least 30 years. “More UN aid workers have lost their lives than at any time in the history of our organization,” he added.
Conflict in Sudan has displaced more than 10 million people and forced an additional 2.2 million to leave the country. Warring parties regularly attack civilians, inflicting horrific violence on women. Activist journalist Madiha Abdalla, who was forced to flee Sudan, wrote an article for IPS explaining how women’s rights defenders were targeted.
Despite the scale of Sudan’s suffering, international attention has declined and aid has been blocked. Russia rejected the UN Security Council’s ceasefire resolution.
As the world commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, UN Women data shows that nearly one in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives.
Individual actors like Abdalla are particularly vulnerable because they have little or no support during the conflict. However, in 2024, there were cases where entire organizations suffered and left. Haiti is an example. More than 700,000 people have been displaced there as gang violence has escalated, especially since the deployment of an underfunded multinational security assistance mission.
Doctors Without Borders, which has worked in Haiti for more than 30 years, said it was ceasing critical care in the capital, Port-au-Prince, due to repeated threats from local law enforcement against staff and patients. The United Nations also ordered its staff to withdraw from the capital, somewhat of a euphemism for temporarily reducing Port-au-Prince’s “footprint.” UNICEF says unprecedented numbers of children have been recruited by gangs.
Haitian refugees became a weapon in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign when he accused Haitian immigrants of preying on the dogs and cats of residents of Springfield, Ohio. Trump’s widely debunked false claims appear to have done nothing to derail his ultimately successful campaign, in which the former president repeatedly declared his intention to deport undocumented immigrants en masse if elected president.
Ironically, his deportation plans may be further spurred by the international body’s World Migration Report 2024, which details unprecedented numbers of international migrants worldwide (estimated at 281 million). In turn, this has led to a surge in repatriation worth hundreds of billions of dollars, making up a “significant” portion of developing countries’ GDP.
Trump’s disdain for international organizations and the binding commitments associated with membership make it likely he will repeat the bold steps he took during his 2016-21 term, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement and freezing donations to the WHO.
As 2024 draws to a close with the ominous spread of a renewed war in Syria, a more isolationist America under Trump will see the value of lesser-known organizations that fly under the radar, such as the Sasakawa Foundation, which campaigns to end leprosy and its stigma. It reminds me. IITA/CGIAR and their commitment to small farms and food system transformation in Africa; Scientists developing new vaccines to strengthen immunity against malaria.
This time it’s a long and positive list. On the climate front, too, progress must be recognized and fostered, even if it is too late and too slow, such as expectations that the world could reach a peak in annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2024, thanks in part to huge leaps in solar power. and wind capacity.
As 2024 proves, people also have the power to make change, whether by electing Trump or ousting a corrupt would-be dictator.
In his first speech at the United Nations, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old senior advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government and Nobel Peace Prize winner, spoke of the “power of the “ordinary people” and especially the youth” to build a new Bangladesh. ” This follows massive protests against government corruption and violence that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August.
We may be on a train headed for the abyss, but we have the knowledge and tools to put on the brakes. If only we could learn our lesson.
Farhana Haque Rahman He is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service and Managing Director of IPS Noram. She was elected as the IPS Secretary from 2015 to 2019. A journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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© Interpress Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
