In keeping with the UN’s focus on climate change and sustainability, the UN Office for Partnerships and the United Nations Foundation convened 450 global investors with over $20 trillion in assets at the fifth “Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions” yesterday at UN Headquarters in New York.

An esteemed panel of financial and investment experts stressed how climate change will reshape all aspects of our life, including investment strategies to reduce carbon footprints. Investors had earlier signed an action plan that provides a framework for sustainable business, from improving investment management to better assess climate-related risk in portfolios to strengthening disclosure and governance on climate change and sustainability.

These steps are bolstered worldwide by growing investments in clean energy. Ethan Zindler of Bloomberg New Energy Finance noted that investments (exempting nuclear and natural gas) reached $260 billion in 2011, an increase of 5 percent since 2010 amidst a still-recovering global economy. This past year also saw the US attract the most new clean energy investment, with China following in second.

More proof to the viability of sustainable investing came by way of GE Ecomagination Vice President Mark Vachon, who pointed to their portfolio earnings of over $100 billion. Vachon said that there is a false choice today between great economics and great environmental performance.

These are not mutually exclusive, as GE has shown. “Organizations that are not on board run a high degree of risk of becoming irrelevant by not only missing a big market opportunity,” said Vachon. “But not being relevant because you’re not responding to a very obvious marketplace signal.”

Where policy has moved slowly, Jack Ehnes, CEO of CalSTRS, pointed out that the private sector has made strides, including persuading the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require mandatory climate-risk disclosure by companies and financing up to $1 trillion internationally for clean energy technologies. These steps, small considering the scale of the challenge, still represent a promising start.

Mindy Lubber, President of CERES and Director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, declared that the participants at this summit were evidence of a powerful narrative. “They are acutely concerned about climate change,” said Lubber. “And are transforming their investment strategies now to avoid its worst impacts. They see the opportunities and the risks of not acting.”

UN Photo/JC McIlwaine

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Following in Argentina’s footsteps, Algeria was elected last September as the 42^nd Presiding country of the G77 and China, the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries at the United Nations.

After cordially wishing a happy new year to his audience at the UN press conference this morning, Mourad Medelci, Algeria Minister for Foreign Affairs, dived right into Algeria’s priorities for 2012. “Our imperative this year is the sustainable restructuring of the global financial and monetary system,” Medelci told UN reporters. “The involvement and commitment of all countries, developed and developing alike, is the only way to overcome the global economic crisis.”

The Group of 77 (G77) and China was established in 1964 as a permanent platform for developing countries to advocate for their collective economic interests at the United Nations. Medelci insisted on the major role that the Group has to play within the UN system, as it comprises now 131 out of the 193 UN member countries, and 80 percent of the world’s population.

Apart from economic and financial recovery, three other priorities were identified by Algeria for this coming year: food security, the safeguard of the environment and sustainable development, as well as facilitated access to energy sources.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon insisted on the continuing leadership role that the G77 has to play ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20, to be held June 2012 in Brazil. The Conference will require concrete measures for safeguarding the environment, while simultaneously, “Promoting balanced and stable economic growth and ensuring social equity,” insisted the Secretary-General.

Historically, Algeria has a special status within the G77.  Twice holding the Presidency, in 1982 and 1994, the nation also hosted the groundbreaking meeting where the cornerstone Charter of Algiers was adopted.

“Algeria has a very rich experience and a remarkable diplomacy, with a long and successful track record in promoting South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue,” Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the General Assembly, expressed during the ceremony. “I am convinced that, under the able leadership of Algeria, the Group will continue to effectively promote the UN’s development agenda and the views of developing countries.”

This special day was an opportunity for Medelci to insist on the significant improvements made by his country in the last decade. “Algeria is catching up with its historical delay,” said the Foreign Affairs Minister. “In ten years, we moved from a 30 percent to a 10 percent unemployment rate. Our GDP exceeds $150 billion and our external debt is of zero.”

As Algeria takes over leadership of the G77 and China, the world is undergoing profound crises. Not only does the global economic and financial system require profound restructuring, but weak social structures, alarming environmental threats, as well as the impending 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, require the effort of the whole international community.

Mourad Medelci holds up a gavel symbolizing Algeria’s succession to the chairmanship of the G77 and China. Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

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Photo Credit: La Shawn Pagán

“We mayors don’t have the luxury of talking about change rather than delivering it,” posited Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg last Thursday at United Nations headquarters during an Intersessional Meeting on Sustainable Cities.

With the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (often referred to as Rio+20) only six months away, the speakers all expressed their hope that the conference should be an opportunity for finding practical solutions rather than establishing distant timetables and complex plans with little chance of implementation.

“Rio+20 should focus on concrete actions in the present and near future, not simply provide hope for future generations.” said Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “We need countries, communities, companies, and citizens to commit to specific actions that will speed transition to an equitable low-carbon green economy.”

Luis A. Ubiñas, President of the Ford Foundation, insisted that a paradigm shift would be necessary to achieve sustainable development. He proposed three major principles that urban citizens should embrace in the near future: density, diversity, and regularization. The latter, referring to the urgency for cities to be well-planned and designed for efficiency, focuses on policy decisions that are expected to be an inherent outcome of the conference next June.

More than half of the population now lives in cities, and this number will jump to 75 percent within forty years’ time. Urban areas are also responsible for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions. In spite of these alarming numbers, the speakers stressed that cities also represented the potential cure to environmental degradation, as urban hubs are also centers of innovation and home to those most directly affected by climate change.

Mayor Bloomberg, who also serves as Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, underlined the tremendous efforts New York City has recently pursued to combat climate change:  half a million new trees have been planted since 2007, a city-wide bike service initiative is about to be launched, and strict codes for energy-efficiency in residential and commercial buildings have been set.

Ubiñas concluded the meeting by raising the essential question: “How can we ensure that our cities evolve as just cities shaped by fairness and shared prosperity?” Regardless of the outcome at Rio, it is evident that the solution lies not in the hands of a few mayors or local governments, but can only be realized by the efforts of all urban citizens.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) released its World Malaria Report 2011 on Tuesday, that highlighted the significant strides made in recent years to combat malaria. There has been a decline of 5 percent in malaria-specific mortality rates in the past year, over 25 percent since 2000, and by 33 percent in Africa.

The availability of insect bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa, a key tool in preventing malaria, rose from 88.5 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010.  Half of sub-Saharan African households had at least one bed net and 96 percent of individuals had access to them. Diagnostic testing also increased, with delivered rapid diagnostics tests climbing to 88 million in 2010 from 45 million in 2008, and testing rates in the public sector in Africa more than doubling between 2005 and 2010 from 20 percent to 45 percent.

Funding for malaria control has gone from $1.7 billion in 2010 to $2 billion in 2011. While a great improvement, it still falls far short of the almost $6 billion needed annually to reach global malaria targets. Moreover, in light of projected decreases in funding, this progress may be short-lived.

“We have a real problem of financing,” said Professor Awa Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership. “The recent announcement that the Global Fund to Fight TB, AIDS and Malaria may not be able to commit new funds until 2014, at the earliest, and that they may cut existing grants by at least 25 percent could have devastating consequences.”

Coll-Seck called for innovative financing solutions that would procure new resources, as well as maximize existing funds. By allocating 1 percent of national budgets to fight malaria, 75 countries could provide nets for each at-risk individual. Ray Chambers, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, noted the role African leadership can play in these efforts, given six nations make up 60 percent of global malaria cases (Nigeria, the DRC, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali).

In addition to financing, improving efficiency is essential to not only enhance measures to fight malaria but also decrease costs. One innovation extends the life of insecticidal nets from 2 years to 5 years, which would cut funding needs by nearly $3.2 billion.

With 216 million malaria cases around the globe, the progress made so far must be maintained and financing is critical to sustain proven cost-effective measures.  As Dr. Robert Newman, Director of the WHO’s Global Malaria Programme, declared, “In 2011, no one should die from malaria for a lack of a $5 bed net, a 50-cent diagnostic test, and a one dollar anti-malarial treatment.”

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The US-based International Breast Milk Project (IBMP), Prolacta Bioscience and Quick International Courier in a joint humanitarian effort delivered 10,000 ounces (2,500 bottles) of donor breast milk to be utilized by premature, sick, and orphaned infants in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa.

In Cape Town, South Africa, baby Kyle was born at just 1.4 pounds, 3 months too early.  Kyle was extremely small and vulnerable and, even worse, his mother had drug resistant TB and was HIV positive. This created many obstacles for Kyle and his fight for survival.  Access to breast milk was the key to his recovery. Sadly his mother was too ill to give her own breast milk and was admitted to the ICU in another hospital.

Kyle received help from an unexpected source; mothers across the United States donated their excess breast milk to help babies in situations like Kyle’s.  In South Africa there are babies like Kyle born every day.

Donor breast milk is one of the most important resources given to these infants. The Cape Town and Durban based non-profits, Milk Matters and iThemba Lethu, distribute donor breast milk to over 25 major hospitals and two orphan homes for children affected by AIDS, helping save the lives of premature, and sick babies.

Emphasizing the need for continued supply of donor breast milk, Dr. Max Kroon tells MediaGlobal, “In the developing world, breast-feeding and breast milk feeding are key interventions to promote child health and survival. These benefits are greater in preterm babies and are undermined if they get any non-human milk. With up to 200 HIV-exposed babies born at Cape Town’s Mowbray Maternity Hospital every month, donor milk is critical to ensuring that these babies only get human milk which reduces the risk of HIV transmission while retaining the benefits of breast milk.”

Penny Reimer, Director of iThemba Lethu Milk Bank, explained, “Breast milk provides optimal nutrition for babies orphaned as a result of HIV. It substantially improves their quality of life, reduces opportunistic infections for those who are HIV infected and these babies grow and thrive on breast milk.”

In an appeal to mothers in the US to donate milk for these vulnerable infants in Africa, IBMP’s Executive Director, Amanda Nickerson told MediaGlobal, “Donor breast milk is one of the most important resources for infants in developing countries and the demand consistently outstrips the supply.”

Amanda explains, “We make donating simple. From the online application, to picking up the milk right from their doorstep, we make donating easy so mothers have one less thing to worry about. We have partnered with Prolacta Bioscience to collect, screen and prepare the donor milk for shipment.

Prolacta processes 25 percent of the first 400,000 ounces of donated breast milk for infants in Africa who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, or who are suffering from HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, poverty, and disease. The remaining 75 percent remains in the United States to be used to make Prolacta’s human-milk-derived Human Milk Fortifier for critically ill and premature infants in neonatal intensive care units.

Should the breast milk donations exceed 400,000 ounces, 10 percent is processed for shipment to Africa, and the remaining 90 percent stays in the United States. Additionally, Prolacta donates one dollar to IBMP for every ounce of milk that remains in the US.

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Almost two months have passed since devastating floods hit the region of Central America, especially in El Salvador and Nicaragua. But the end of the rain is only the beginning of a months-long recovery for the population. Thousands of houses were damaged, possessions destroyed, and access to hundreds of schools and roads is still hampered.

Last month at UN headquarters, Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), briefed reporters on her recent visit to Central America.

According to OCHA, 104 people have died from the tropical depression and 107,366 have been evacuated.

“Many people there have lost everything,” Bragg told MediaGlobal. “Most of the initial 60,000 who were in emergency shelters now have to go back home, but are living under horrible conditions. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Central America and desperately needs help from the international community. So far, only 22 percent of the $14 million appeal has been funded.”

Bragg identified six priorities: food aid, clean water  medical assistance, shelters, protection against violence, and education for children who are denied access to damaged schools. “For children, going to school is not just an educational activity, it is part of their own recovery from the traumatic experience,” told Bragg.

Spain and some Latin American countries have been the most generous because of their traditional ties to the area but there is still a long way to go in order to fulfill the Flash Appeals launched by the UN for providing emergency assistance to the countries affected.

“We have learned much from past hurricanes in the region, in terms of rebuilding stronger bridges and houses, or communities that would mitigate against natural disasters,” Bragg told MediaGlobal. “This is why this time, deaths could be counted in dozens, not in hundreds. Of course, it is not enough, but we are moving on!”

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While Guatemala struggles to emerge from a 36-year civil war, the aftereffects of the massacres and violence linger, specifically toward women.  Even with the recent approval of resolution 4-2011 by the Guatemalan congress, which calls for a speedy due process in cases involving violence directed toward females, many organizations feel more should be done to protect Guatemalan women.

Stepping up to that responsibility is the Population Council, by working with Mayan women in the rural areas of the country, with its program, Abriendo Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities). With it, the council is changing the way Guatemalan women see themselves.

“We work in creating a personal, human identity, and self-esteem,” Jennifer Catino tells MediaGlobal, an associate for the Poverty, Gender and Youth Program for the council, who travels to Guatemala on a regular basis.

Featured on PBS for working with Mayan girls in Guatemala, Abriendo Oportunidades has helped an estimated 3,500 indigenous girls in about 40 Mayan communities in rural areas to date. Their program extends from basic education, to teaching of entrepreneurial skills that lead to financial independence. “Economic literacy is very important,” said Catino.

The Council provides opportunities for girls, from weaving traditional baskets for income to formalized training for jobs as accountants or medical assistance – more girls are benefiting from the program.

At the start of the program in 2004, 16 Mayan girls were given paid internships with local non-governmental organizations (NGO).  Along with the internships, the girls were educated in the health and agriculture sectors, among others. With these jobs, the participants gained not only public speaking and leadership experience, but most importantly, self-esteem.

“They [men] have to start looking at young women as an asset,” said Catino, “We cannot promote gender equity without involving boys and men.” Catino said that an important aspect of the program also works with educating males on their masculinity and their impact on women. With the majority of the males being community leaders ensure their participation and approval is granted before beginning any program in any area, “Otherwise our program is not sustainable.”

Currently working in 30 world communities, in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean, the Council’s programs vary from education in HIV/AIDS prevention to sexual and reproductive rights to domestic violence counseling, to name a few.

If you’d like to learn more about the Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades program you can visit popcouncil.org or you can watch the Population Council – Abriendo Oportunidades YouTube channel.

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As part of their Music for Relief campaign, the rock band Linkin Park released their new video for their track “Not Alone” on last month at United Nations headquarters.

Welcomed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who thanked the band for using their music to help those displaced victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Since 2005, the Music for Relief campaign has planted over 955,000 trees and raised upwards of $4 million to help victims of natural disasters around the world. Most recently their efforts have helped those displaced by the earthquake in Haiti.

“We’re partnering up with designers to bring affordable lighting to these people,” said Mike Shinoda, co-lead vocalist of the band to MediaGlobal. “The prices start at about $5 each – I think that’s very cost effective,” lead guitarist Brad Delson quipped. “And they look cool!”

Shinoda stressed the importance of bringing lights to the victims, saying that many were using kerosene and dung to light up their houses, both of which emit toxins that ultimately lead to preventable deaths. This is the first project for the band on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s “Sustainable Energy for All” project. They will be partnering with the Haiti Regeneration Initiative (HRI) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The video, with footage filmed by the United Nations depicting images of victims of the earthquake in Haiti, is a way to create awareness. As Shinoda and his fellow band members continue to work with the UN, they are calling on their legions of fans to come together and help them to help those in need.

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This 5 December marks the 25^th anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development. In commemoration, an esteemed panel of legal and economic experts convened last week at United Nations headquarters in New York. Moderated by Craig Mokhiber of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the round table focused on the role of human rights in development and global economics.

In his keynote address, Joseph Stiglitz noted that the human rights approach to development has proved its merits, with economic and social rights gaining increased acceptance in the West. However the discussion on rights remains unbalanced with differing priorities in rights across states. “There’s a lot of talk about property rights, the rights of mobility of capital, the notions of intellectual property rights, those are the kind of things that have got the focus of attention in the West,” remarked Stiglitz. “There are other rights that one could articulate and many in the developing world worry about.”

Professor James Thuo Gathii of Albany Law School advanced this observation in the context of international trade and investment agreements. He noted that the proliferation of such agreements have yielded unprecedented rights for the investor, while often undermining the ability of developing states to protect human rights.

While the right to development aimed to put the individual at the center of development and policy-making, Philip Alston noted that it had not resonated. “On the one hand, it is…intuitively appealing,” he noted. “Of course there’s a right to development, what else could we take out of the aggregation of human rights?

“The paradox however is a simple one: the right to development has achieved very little. If we look at the right to development, it has remained depressingly a conversation among governments and transnational elites, in buildings like this.”

Alston said that the right to development had to become meaningful in a practical sense, specifically greater accountability and transparency. One such avenue, as Professor Radhika Balakrishnan of Rutgers University described, is to use human rights to assess economic policy and state obligations. She claimed that the economic crisis is a simultaneous crisis of ideas, and we need to probe how to make the individual the center of economic policy.

Professor Penny Andrews of City University of New York used the case of South Africa as an example of constitutionalizing economic and social rights. She argued that while challenges exist, individuals and movements using the courts to pursue rights allows for addressing poverty and inequality which obstruct development. Even when claims do not succeed, the act of pursuing them spreads awareness across the populace that can mobilize people and impact policy-making.

Mokhiber closed the discussion stating that the current crisis can be an opportunity to revive global economic and political structures with a respect for the full spectrum of human rights. The public unrest streaking the globe in light of growing inequality, economic turmoil and questionable political will make the vision of the Declaration even more relevant today: people must be at the center of and for development.

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Last Tuesday, Ambassador Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative of Grenada and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), discussed what is at stake for AOSIS at this week’s Durban Summit. As many as one hundred delegates and seven ministers from AOSIS member states are attending the Durban Summit, maintaining the organization’s participation in climate talks since Cancun across various global forums.

The ambassador described significant actions undertaken by small island states, pointing to the SIDS DOCK program that was unveiled at the 2010 Cancun Summit. Launched and financed just this past year, the SIDS DOCK program targets renewable energy across national energy sectors, and sets up a strategic partnership of action that focuses on emission reductions and efficiency.

Despite regional progress, we are seeing record-high global emissions, and small island states are already bearing the brunt of changing weather patterns. Williams called for a renewal of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Additionally, she proposed a legally binding instrument to which states not party to the Kyoto Protocol would commit to take actions under their legal obligations.

On the issue of financing, Williams endorsed the establishment and capitalizing of the Green Climate Fund, but called for greater transparency of the fast-start funding, which is projected to inject $10 billion a year for adaptation initiatives in the developing world. Williams described that AOSIS is going into this week’s meeting with high ambitions. While she described that assistance had been forthcoming in financial and technological assistance, from countries such as Australia and Denmark, a firmer commitment is still needed to curb emissions.

“All our people, our business communities, our village communities, cannot wait for global negotiations to agree to bring down and to regulate greenhouse gas emissions after 2015,” declared Williams. “The world’s window for climate safety is closing, and our main message is we should not allow that window to close.”

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