UN Conference on Climate Change

The UN's conference on climate change begins today in Cancun, Mexico - follow it's findings on the official website.

Nothing like stating the obvious

A UN convention on biodiversity has declared that the ongoing loss of nature is hurting human society as well as the natural world.

Read more at the BBC.

You can also follow what is happening at the convention over the next two weeks by going to its website.

Copenhagen Summit 2009

The UN's top climate official has given an upbeat assessment on the prospects of a global deal at a climate summit which opens in Copenhagen tomorrow.

Read more about the summit and other climate change information on this link.

Or go to the official Summit Website by clicking here.

One billion are undernourished

Targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without greater international effort, UN food agencies have warned.
The UN's annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people - a sixth of the world's population - are undernourished.

Read more at the BBC.

Or read the actual report by clicking this link.

Human Development Index

The world’s countries continue to record substantial improvements in human development but vast inequalities still exist between rich and poor States, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warned on Monday as it unveiled its annual measure of progress in human well-being.
The Human Development Index (HDI), which combines measure of life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, was this year calculated for 182 countries and territories – a record number – and released as part of the annual Human Development Report.

74th in the HPI

HPI stands for Happy Planet Index and the UK comes 73 places below Costa Rica.

The HPI is an efficiency measure: the degree to which long and happy lives (life satisfaction and life expectancy are multiplied together to calculate happy life years) are achieved per unit of environmental impact.
To find out what that means click this link and read more from Mark Easton.
Alternatively go to the UN's home of the Happy Planet Index.
Calculate your own Happy Planet Index by clicking here.

Drought hits Ethiopia

Aid agencies are warning that Ethiopian authorities are under-estimating the scale of the country's drought.
Official estimates of the number of people facing hunger and hardship stand at 4.6m but agencies warn the real figure could be more than 8m.
There is also confusion over the amount of money needed to meet the crisis, with the Oxfam agency estimating it at about $500m.
However, the United Nations reports that $772m has already been pledged.

Arctic - The disputed territories

British scientists say they have drawn up the first detailed map to show areas in the Arctic that could become embroiled in future border disputes.

A team from Durham University compiled the outline of potential hotspots by basing the design on historical and ongoing arguments over ownership.

Russian scientists caused outrage last year when they planted their national flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

The UK researchers hope the map will inform politicians and policy makers.

To see the map in more detail click on the image.

World Population Day

Today (11 July) is the United Nations World Population day.

For more information click on this link to the UN Population Fund.

Rising food prices

As Mrs M complains about the rising cost of staple foods such as bread and milk the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has warned the industrialised countries that unless they increase yields, eliminate barriers and move food to where it is needed most, a global catastrophe could result.

The recent food crisis is believed to have pushed 100 million people into hunger worldwide. Poorer countries are faced with a 40% increase in their food imports bill this year, and experts say some countries' food bills have doubled in the past year.

According to the World Food Programme higher food prices are rooted in increased energy costs, rising demand from economic growth in emerging economies, the growth of biofuels and increasing climatic shocks such as droughts and floods.

The map below shows how the rising cost of food is affecting countries ballance of trade. Balance of tarde is the difference between the cost of exports and the cost of imports for a country.