The GM debate in the developing world encompasses countries with very different priorities. Through the shrill battle of interests, the real agents for change tend to be overlooked.
Evacuees gather at a rescue centre after this month’s floods in the Philippines. But for many women the danger doesn’t end here.
EPA/Francis R. Malasig/AAP
Climate change isn’t gender-neutral. The effects are likely to hit the world’s poorest women hardest of all, because they are more likely to lack the resources to escape natural disasters or disease.
New Delhi’s Yamuna River, like much of India’s water, is polluted. The world urgently needs low-carbon ways to clean things up.
EPA/Harish Tyagi
Much of the world still lacks access to proper sanitation and clean water - an issue that needs urgent action. But without low-carbon technologies, clean water could come at the expense of the climate.
Access to the grid has crowded out solar in some places in India.
DFID - UK Department for International Development/Flickr
Given existing technologies, expanding access to electricity almost always increases CO2 emissions. There are real trade-offs between addressing poverty and climate change.
Saving lives one needle at a time.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
BlackBerry, once the must-have device for the sweaty palms of executives and wannabe executives everywhere, has seen its global share of the smartphone market fall to below 1%. So would you still buy this…
Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
EPA/Harish Tyagi
At the UN Climate Negotiations underway in Lima, Peru, foreign minister Julie Bishop has called on China and India to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In her address to the conference on Wednesday…
Many G20 members have now pledged contributions to the Green Climate Fund, but Australia has signalled it will not.
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The G20 summit in Brisbane has put the pressure on Australia to boost its action on climate change not just at home but also internationally through a new UN-backed fund. The summit yielded major pledges…
Global infrastructure agendas must not marginalise developing countries
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Australia’s G20 infrastructure agenda aims to increase quality investment into global projects. The agenda advocates using the private sector to develop infrastructure in order to boost global growth and…
‘Won’t this show up in the crime stats?’
Nomad_Soul
Corruption is an urgent global problem, one that costs the developing world dearly and badly slows its development down. But until recently, figuring out just how big the problem is, and what to do about…
While design alone cannot solve global poverty, the Moneymaker pump is making a difference for many Africans.
Esther Havens/ Kickstart.org
Designers aim to change peoples’ lives, ideally for the better. The American co-founders of design and development company KickStart, Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, set themselves a particularly difficult…
The idea that there is a “land grab” taking place in developing nations began with the publication of a report, Seized!, by the NGO Grain. This rang an alarm bell about large-scale land acquisitions…
Australia’s refusal to support developing countries’ efforts under a new climate change agreement or the new UN Green Climate Fund will further undermine its claims to being a good international citizen…
Learning on the job could make a real difference to healthcare.
Tricia Wang
Universities are being shaken up by a new mode of learning. The world’s elite institutions are opening up courses so thousands of people can learn for free via their laptops, mobiles or tablets. And these…
Stop “discounting the future”, work co-operatively, shake up national and international institutions, and fight short-termism were among the calls in a new study released yesterday. With the world’s richest…
Not just a source of food: this river could help doctors save lives.
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Suzie Sheehy, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Pneumonia kills more children worldwide than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. This is surprising given that treatment for pneumonia is relatively simple. In rich countries survival rates are very…