Sudan and South Sudan: Peace and Climate Change

• The peace needs to be rewritten to include provisions for all tribes to address what they were fighting over to begin with. 
• Famine relief needs to be supported by all western world countries, especially those who are the largest contributors to global warming. 
• The conflict in Sudan's arid west can be traced to severe drought and population growth in the 1980s that sparked a struggle between settled farmers and pastoralists.
• In Darfur there is a massive ecological and demographic challenge exacerbated by climate change.
• There's not a chance in the world for Darfur to be peaceful unless a solution is found to water stress. 

Read more in these two posts from Sudan Watch archive 2006:

Climate Change and Darfur 

Note this gem, by an insightful blogger at dishyduds blogspot re "Climate Change and Darfur":

"I now believe that the United States has a moral obligation to alleviate the struggles in Africa. It is our responsibility because we are the largest contributors to the root of the problem. I no longer support a UN military presence. Peace cannot be forced, and military action would only act as a band-aid on a seeping infected wound. The root cause needs to be addressed and the United States needs to lead as we had a hand in creating the problem. The peace needs to be rewritten to include provisions for all tribes to address what they were fighting over to begin with. Famine relief needs to be supported by all western world countries, especially those who are the largest contributors to global warming." 

__________________________

Related report

Sudan Watch - July 17, 2006 

Darfur Peace Must Address Water Crisis: Economist - excerpt:

The conflict in Sudan's arid west is often attributed to political and ethnic grievances, Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, told a climate change conference.

But he said its origins can be traced to severe drought and population growth in the 1980s that sparked a struggle between settled farmers and pastoralists.

"(In Darfur) we need to understand that, at the core, there is a massive ecological and demographic challenge exacerbated by climate change," Sachs said.

"I would say there's not a chance in the world for Darfur to be peaceful unless a solution is found to water stress." 

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2006/07/darfur-peace-must-address-water-crisis.html

[Ends]

UK urges for UN Reforms, backs India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council

UN reform is long overdue. UNSC needs permanent African representation and membership extended to India, Brazil, Germany and Japan. Read more.

Report at Republic World - www.republicworld.com
Written by Press Trust Of India
Published Friday 30 June 2023, 17:17 IST - here is a full copy:

UK urges for UN Reforms, backs India's bid for a permanent seat in the UNSC

The UK government has reiterated its call for reform of the United Nations as one of its top transnational priorities and supported India's bid for permanent membership of the powerful Security Council.

United Nations Security Council (Image: AP/File Photo)

The UK government has reiterated its call for reform of the United Nations as one of its top transnational priorities and supported India's bid for permanent membership of the powerful Security Council.

India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanent member of the United Nations.

Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.

In a speech at a conference at the Chatham House think tank in London on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called for a reinvigorated multilateral system that is more reflective of the times.

He pointed out that the world’s economic centre of gravity is shifting away from the Euro-Atlantic and towards the Indo-Pacific but the multilateral institutions are yet to catch up.

“I have five transnational priorities. First, reform of the United Nations Security Council. We want to see permanent African representation and membership extended to India, Brazil, Germany and Japan,” said Cleverly.

“I know this is a bold reform. But it will usher the Security Council into the 2020s. And the UNSC has grown before – albeit not since 1965. My second priority is reform of the international financial institutions. This matters for climate finance and, of course, for poverty reduction,” he said.

The minister also hailed India’s leadership role with its presidency of the G20 in pitching for representation of poorer nations on the world stage.

“It seems obvious to me that the voice of the poorest and most vulnerable countries must be heard at the heart of the multilateral system. That’s why we support permanent membership of the G20 for the African Union and welcome India’s leadership on taking this forward,” he said.

Among the other priorities for the UK, Cleverly highlighted making finance easier and quicker to access and maximise the impact of that investment.

He also stressed that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) desperately needs new rules that reflect today’s digital economy to make trade policy “free, fair, open and not manipulated or distorted”.

He spelt out another top priority as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing have the potential to transform humankind’s problem-solving capabilities.

“I will chair the UN Security Council’s first-ever meeting on this issue, in New York next month. And the Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak] will host an AI summit this autumn,” said Cleverly. 

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)

View original: https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/uk-urges-for-un-reforms-backs-indias-bid-for-a-permanent-seat-in-the-unsc-articleshow.html

[Ends]

Sudan's desertification. The future of wildlife and population growth on Earth will get worse

Sudan’s desertification

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest. 

Photo by Nasa/Caption by BBC/

Sudan Watch 8 Feb 2011 (eight years ago!) Sudan a country divided

- - -

The future of wildlife on earth is going to get worse

SIR DAVID Attenborough, a world famous English broadcaster and natural historian and the writer and narrator of the most amazing nature documentaries ever made, is pessimistic about the future of wildlife on Earth. In an interview by Vox.com 12 April 2019 93-year-old Sir David says: 

“Things are going to get worse. Unless we act within the next 10 years, we are in real trouble. I find it hard to exaggerate the peril. This is the new extinction and we are half way through it. We are in terrible, terrible trouble and the longer we wait to do something about it the worse it is going to get.”

Here is a link to the Vox interview, in a tweet by climate change expert Paul E Dawson from Scotland, UK:

• “I find it hard to exaggerate the peril,”
  
  “This is the new extinction and we are half way through it. We are in terrible, terrible trouble and the longer we wait to do something about it the worse it is going to get.”#ClimateChange #ActOnClimate https://t.co/2VDri00z8w

  — Paul Dawson on Climate Change (@PaulEDawson) 4 May 2019

- - -

Further reading

David Attenborough - Humans are plague on Earth

Humans are a plague on the Earth that need to be controlled by limiting population growth

Louise Grey, in her article published by The Telegraph UK 22 Jan 2013 (six years ago!), writes:

"The television presenter [Sir David Attenborough] said that humans are threatening their own existence and that of other species by using up the world’s resources.

He said the only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth.

“We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.

Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he told the Radio Times.

Sir David, who is a patron on the Population Matters, has spoken out before about the “frightening explosion in human numbers” and the need for investment in sex education and other voluntary means of limiting population in developing countries.

“We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there. They can’t support themselves — and it’s not an inhuman thing to say. It’s the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it’s going to get worse and worse".” 

Source: The Telegraph 22 Jan 2013 (six years ago!)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/9815862/Humans-are-plague-on-Earth-Attenborough.html

- - -

Water to spark future wars: UK

Drilling for Sudan’s drinking water is more important than drilling for oil

Darfur hand-pumps are on the frontline of peace building

Source: Sudan Watch 28 Feb 2006 (thirteen years ago!)

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2006/02/water-to-spark-future-wars-uk.html

Security situation in Darfur 23 March 2010 - Adapting to Climate Change in Darfur

Darfur / UNAMID Daily Media Brief 2010-03-23
EL FASHER (DARFUR), Sudan, March 24, 2010/APO:

Security situation in Darfur
The security situation in Darfur remains relatively calm.

UNAMID military forces conducted 121 patrols including routine, short range, long range, night, and Humanitarian escort patrols, covering 109 villages and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps during the reporting period.

UNAMID police advisors also conducted 159 patrols in villages and IDP camps.

UNAMID takes part in local Climate Change Conference
UNAMID today joined policy-makers, UN agencies, donors and other stakeholders, including the Sudanese Federal Ministry of the Environment and the State Farmer’s Union, today in El Fasher, North Darfur, to take part in a two-day visioning conference entitled “Adapting to Climate Change in Darfur.”

The forum afforded the various parties the opportunity to debate and research the impact of climate change on livelihoods in Darfur and to facilitate collaboration among them to help meet the pressing needs of the region.

The issues discussed included population growth, urbanization, dwindling water supplies, as well as preparations to deal with the increasingly frequent droughts in the region and the resulting food shortages.

The participants plan to visit, tomorrow, the Golo dam, which supplies much of El Fasher’s water and is suffering from the impacts of desertification.

The organizing of the conference was led by UN Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan, Mr. Toby Lanzer.

New book: Environment and Conflict in Africa: Reflections on Darfur

Environment and Conflict in Africa: Reflections on Darfur
Edited by Marcel Leroy, UPEACE Africa Programme
Publication date October 2009, 404 pages.
ISBN 978-9977-925-63-9

This volume examines climate and ecological changes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and how these relate to conflicts on the continent. Particular attention is paid to environmental and livelihood aspects of the crisis in Darfur. Conclusions are drawn regarding peace-building in areas facing resource constraints.

The book includes research conducted in-house at UPEACE Africa in Addis Ababa under a project funded by the Preventive Diplomacy Programme of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also included are twenty-five contributed papers that are based on presentations made at a conference which was organized by the project in Addis Ababa 20 to 23 July 2009.

To download click here.

Copyright © 2009 University for Peace
Printed in Ethiopia
All rights reserved. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University for Peace.
ISBN9789977925639
To order copies of this book please contact: africaprogramme@upeace.org

Hat tip: Alex de Waal 03 Nov 2009.