Showing posts by Alison Williams.
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Climate Change and Non-Pro: One of These Things is Not Like the Other
›March 27, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsWhat do climate change and non-proliferation have in common? Not much, Carnegie Endowment President Jessica Mathews said yesterday at a remarkably frank and insightful discussion at the Wilson Center. Yet climate change and non-proliferation are often lumped together as the “ultimate global issues” and approached similarly, she said:“With non-proliferation, the world is vulnerable to the smallest, poorest, most miserable country on the planet—North Korea.… Climate change is totally different. There are really only seven political actors that matter, and only two that really matter.”
Those two, of course, are the United States and China, whose combined carbon emissions add up to 39 percent of the world’s total. Given this fact, Mathews believes the solution to climate change is anything but global. It is incumbent upon the biggest emitters to take the first steps. With them in the lead, the world will follow suit, she thinks. But without them, no real change can occur.
In contrast, United Nations Foundation Senior Fellow Mohamed El-Ashry argued for a more diplomatic track, in which the United Nations would harness its convening power to bring the necessary parties to the table. The skeptic in me wonders whether the UN has this much power. El-Ashry himself, when asked whether UNEP would have more authority if it were upgraded to the status of an agency, said, “You wake up one morning and think of your cat as a tiger, but it is still a cat.”
The UN is a bit of a cat itself right now. Does it have the credibility, legitimacy, or sway to bring all the necessary actors to the table? I’m not so sure. And the former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, certainly didn’t help. The man did once say that the United Nations does not exist, and that “there is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.”
Whether the solution should be global or local, yesterday’s debate was utterly refreshing. Representatives from the U.S. Department of State, EPA, and other organizations were on hand to debate the relative merits of multilateral and bilateral agreements, unilateral action, and global commitment. While little may have been resolved, this was the sort of open and honest dialogue about climate change that we hope to see more of. Take the time to watch the webcast. -
WHO Article Explores Family Planning-Poverty Link
›March 2, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsA new article in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization concludes that higher fertility and lower contraceptive use among poorer segments of society should be considered an inequity—a product of the poor being prevented from achieving their desired fertility to the same degree as wealthier segments of society. The analysis conducted by the authors—Johns Hopkins’ Duff Gillespie, Saifuddin Ahmed, and Amy Tsui; and Scott Radloff, director of USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health—reveals that family planning can help level the playing field between rich and poor:“Family planning…is an effective way for individuals and groups to lower their fertility if they so desire; and reducing inequality in access to modern contraception will also reduce the inequality in fertility… Our analysis suggests that looking at family planning and fertility through an equity lens is justified for those countries with joint inequalities in unwanted fertility and access to family planning.”
ECSP held a meeting in January 2006 on a related topic—the impact of family planning on poverty alleviation. The speakers, George Washington University’s Thomas Merrick and Meg Greene, had recently conducted a study on this relationship and found that reproductive health interventions in poor populations have the strongest impact on overall health, followed by education, with household well-being the most weakly affected.
Merrick and Greene’s conclusions will be published in a forthcoming issue of ECSP’s FOCUS on population, environment, and security series. -
U.S. Forgives Liberian Debt; Now Only a Few Billion More to Go
›February 14, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsPresident of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—the first elected female head of state in Africa—spoke in Washington on Monday about the progress and challenges to development in her country. Efforts to expand development beyond the capital city of Monrovia (electricity and running water only recently returned after a 15-year hiatus) have been hampered by time spent pleading with international lenders to forgive the odious debt incurred during Charles Taylor’s regime.
Debt forgiveness seems like a no-brainer for a country that has shown remarkable progress in development and democracy, despite being written off not long ago as a decidedly failed state. So I was pleased to see Condoleeza Rice’s statement today, announcing that the United States will cancel $391 million of Liberia’s debt.
This is only a start though. Liberia’s total external debt is 3,000 times greater than the revenue of its exports. Without further forgiveness, the country will not be able to implement many (or any) of the plans Johnson Sirleaf spoke so passionately about during her U.S. visit: secondary road construction to revive trade in natural resources and agriculture, health care and education, and increased stability and security.
Surprisingly, Johnson Sirleaf focused very little on the role environmental resources played in Liberia’s decline. Charles Taylor partly financed his dictatorship and the war with Sierra Leone with revenues from timber, and the lifting of timber sanctions by the UN Security Council is arguably one of Johnson Sirleaf’s greatest accomplishments. Yet reference to timber was oblique; committing to better overall resource management, she said: “We are trying to build a country where our natural resources are used for the benefit of all.”
Similarly, diamonds—for which sanctions have yet to be lifted—were only briefly discussed. Johnson Sirleaf acknowledged the country is still struggling to comply with the Kimberly Process. And finally on the resource angle, Mittal Steel’s new contract for iron ore was a big focus point. It is an interesting new development if only because the company is one of the country’s few private investors—and at $1 billion, the contract is by far the largest. -
Will Climate Change Ignite Terrorism?
›February 5, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsThe effects of climate change could launch a new wave of conflict and terrorism, say climate and security experts. Increased drought and refugee migration resulting from rising sea levels could lead to conflict in the countries worst affected by global warming.
Sir Crispin Tickell, Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said terrorists might exploit these tensions, reported Reuters:“Those who are short of food, those who are short of water, those who can’t move to countries where it looks as if everything is marvelous are going to be people who are going to adopt desperate measures to try and make their point.”
Crispin says the world “must accept” the likely increase of violence within and between states at the hands of environmental change. -
United States Funds Antiretrovirals for Vietnamese Military
›January 29, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsUnder an earmark in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), free HIV/AIDS antiretroviral medication will be made available to military and civilians at a Vietnamese military hospital. The program, a collaboration of PEPFAR and the U.S. Department of Defense, will extend to other military hospitals in the future. Vietnam is one of 67 countries worldwide working to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS through involvement with militaries. -
European Conference: Integrating Environment, Development, and Conflict Prevention
›January 29, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsThe German EU Council Presidency will host a conference on European and national approaches and challenges to integrating environment, development, and conflict prevention in Berlin from March 29-30, 2007. Representatives from EU member states and the European Commission, civil society, the private sector, and the scientific community will identify and discuss key issues, and recommend ways to address the interdependency of environment, development, and conflict prevention policies and programs. Adelphi Research is a collaborating organizer of this conference.
Registration deadline is March 1. -
Wood Gathering Risky Business for Ethiopian Girls, Women
›January 26, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsIn the hills near Addis Ababa, the protected eucalyptus forest presents a lucrative but risky enterprise, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The forest wood, often collected by women and young girls, can sell at market and greatly subsidize meager Ethiopian incomes. But if caught, the women are beat or raped by forest guards. No one, it seems, looks out for them:“When the guards find us with wood, they beat us hard,” says Maselech [Mercho], who is now 10. “If we give them money, they leave us alone. If they get drunk, they try to rape us. We will scream for help, but when we scream in these forests, there is nobody to lend us a hand.”
But the organization Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association is expanding its operations in Ethiopia to teach girls and women new skills and livelihoods that will keep them out of the forests, away from danger, and also protect the environment.
