UN report: saving species even more important than climate change

Too extreme or fair warning? The Guardian:

The UN's biodiversity report – dubbed the Stern for Nature – is expected to say that the value of saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, will be even higher – between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species which provide them.

To mark the UN's International Day for Biological Diversity tomorrow, hundreds of British companies, charities and other organisations have backed an open letter from the Natural History Museum's director Michael Dixon warning that "the diversity of life, so crucial to our security, health, wealth and wellbeing is being eroded".

The UN report's authors go further with their warning on biodiversity, by saying if the goods and services provided by the natural world are not valued and factored into the global economic system, the environment will become more fragile and less resilient to shocks, risking human lives, livelihoods and the global economy.

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UN chooses new climate change director

The process has taken a bit longer than it should have but it's good news to have someone with experience who is ready to start. There's a lot of work to be done after the Copenhagen failure. The Guardian:

Costa Rica's Christiana Figueres is to be the new head of the UN climate convention, BBC News understands.

The UN is expected to confirm her appointment to take over from outgoing chief Yvo de Boer later in the week.

Sources close to the UN said she emerged as front-runner after an intervention from small island states.

The US-based diplomat, daughter of former Costa Rican president Jose Figueres Ferrer, has taken part in UN climate negotiations since 1995.

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Bluefin tuna ban collapses at UN

The EU became wobbly and Canada teamed up with Japan to knock this back. (Canada also managed to block a ban on trading polar bear fur because it would create problems for business. What the?) The arguments against the bluefin ban are ridiculous because the industry is already shattered. They're arguing that it will damage a business that hardly has any life left because they've overfished and overfished leaving a fraction of the bluefin tuna left to hunt. Commercial fishing fleets never know when to stop fishing so it tends not to happen until nothing is left. At least in the past we could expect more common sense policies from Canada but those days seem to be gone as well.

The trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna will continue unchecked after the rejection yesterday of a proposed fishing ban that had been described by conservationists as the only way to save the critically endangered species from extinction.

Japan and Canada along with scores of developing nations succeeded yesterday in preventing any restrictions being imposed on the harvest of the fish, which is highly prized in sushi restaurants, on the grounds that a ban would devastate the world's fishing economies. Delegates at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Doha voted by a margin of 68 to 20 against a proposal to immediately outlaw the sale of bluefin. A weaker measure supported by the EU, which would have introduced a ban in 2011, was also rejected by 72 votes to 43.

The decision puts one of the world's most majestic fish in imminent danger of extinction. Stocks of bluefin, the largest and fastest of all tuna species, have declined to roughly 15 per cent of historic levels. Migrating shoals of the fish, which grow to up to three metres in length and have been likened to underwater Ferraris, are plundered each year as they pass through the Straits of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean.

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UN report highlights growing problem of electronic waste

Who really knows what happens to our old computers or phones when we replace our old models? Individuals alone are substantial enough but when businesses upgrade, there are immediately thousands of old machines at a time. Moving forward, manufacturers are going to need to consider this issue much more than they do today. The Guardian:

Despite a number of conventions aimed at preventing the indiscriminate dumping of e-waste, the problem is snowballing, with billions of people now regularly using advanced electronics.

The problem is particularly acute in parts of west Africa, where ship-loads of e-waste are dumped on a daily basis and scavenged by children who break down the electronics to recover valuable metals that they can sell.

Kuehr said the issue was vitally important for countries where economic growth is highest and dumping most prevalent.

"It's definitely in the countries which have substantial increase in consumption – countries like China and India, which are still substantial targets for illegal imports of e-waste," he said. "The same applies for countries like Nigeria."

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UN climate change director to step down

The current approach is far off track so something needs to change. The UN can only do so much and political leaders have to step up instead of side step one of these days. Where's the leadership?

De Boer said that he was not quitting the key UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) post because the Copenhagen climate talks in December were widely seen as a failure. "We were about an inch away from a formal agreement. It was basically in our grasp, but it didn't happen. So that was a pity," he said.

But he was known to have been frustrated by the outcome, and doubtful whether anyone could steer through a major global agreement between wildly diverging rich and poor countries. Today he said that the talks were "on track", but that he was uncertain that a full treaty could be finalised this year.

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UN report: cost of pollution could wipe out 1/3 of corporate profits

Again, what about the costs to individuals? Sure it's going to cost more for business though the drive for higher and higher profits has had a phony feeling to it for a while. Were Lehman profits real? Were the profits of businesses who sold lead-tainted kids toys or tainted pet food real? And what about the health care costs that everyone else needs to pay because the corporate world is overly driven to produce unrealistic profits? What about places like the Chesapeake Bay that has become a polluted disaster with tainted wildlife due to the drive for profits without regard to anyone or anything else? Call me crazy, but I'm more concerned with living without being polluted by corporate profits than by corporate profits. But that's just me.

Businesses need to think a lot more about their impact on the world but they don't. It helps that political systems around the world have corporatists in charge who only care about what's good for business. The Guardian:

The study, conducted by London-based consultancy Trucost and due to be published this summer, found the estimated combined damage was worth US$2.2 trillion (£1.4tn) in 2008 - a figure bigger than the national economies of all but seven countries in the world that year.

The figure equates to 6-7% of the companies' combined turnover, or an average of one-third of their profits, though some businesses would be much harder hit than others.

"What we're talking about is a completely new paradigm," said Richard Mattison, Trucost's chief operating officer and leader of the report team. "Externalities of this scale and nature pose a major risk to the global economy and markets are not fully aware of these risks, nor do they know how to deal with them."

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Clearly the UN has socialist leanings

Life expectancy, literacy and school enrollment can be so overrated. AP:

Norway enjoys the world's highest quality of life, while Niger suffers the lowest, a U.N. agency said Monday, as it released a ranking that highlights the wide disparities in well-being between rich and poor countries.

The annual Human Development Index, unveiled in Bangkok by the United Nations Development Program, takes into account life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and per capita gross domestic product in 182 countries.

The full UN rankings here. Read More......

UN sacks US diplomat to Afghanistan

Was it fair to remove someone who was calling for a complete review of the ballot-tampering charges or did it make sense to limit the investigation? Neither solution sounds very attractive though the charges of corruption (and lack of progress) in Afghanistan do wear thin over time.

As No 2 in the mission, Mr Galbraith was in charge of the UN's supervision of the 20 August election which returned President Hamid Karzai to power. But his insistence on a full investigation into the alleged massive ballot stuffing that marred the vote brought him into head-on conflict with his boss Kai Eide, head of the UN mission in Kabul, who favours a more cautious, less confrontational approach. It also made him virtually persona non grata with the Karzai government.

The clash, of both style and substance, split the UN mission. Neither Mr Eide nor Mr Galbraith bothered to conceal their differences. "The disagreement has been about how active the UN should be in promoting the goal [of free and fair elections]," Mr Galbraith acknowledged in a radio interview last week when asked about the turmoil. "Not surprisingly there are strong feelings within the mission."

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1 billion hungry this year

In the best of times the rich countries of the world struggle to live up to their commitments. Now that we're in a recession, it will only get worse. Imagine how many people could be fed with even a fraction of the bloated Wall Street bonuses?

Food aid is at a 20-year low despite the number of critically hungry people soaring this year to its highest level ever, the United Nations relief agency said Wednesday.

The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year for the first time, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said, adding that it is facing a serious budget shortfall.

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UN funding short $5 billion

It's unfortunate but during recessions it's also to be expected. Governments from rich countries are currently more worried about funding projects at home. With the recession likely to stay around for a few more months and limited growth after, the UN could come up short for a few more years. The Guardian:

The United Nations is warning of a $4.8bn (£2.9bn) shortfall in funding to tackle humanitarian crises in the world's poorest countries, as the credit crunch leaves developed world governments with little cash to spare.

Delivering its half-yearly update about emergency fund-raising, John Holmes, of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that while the UN's emergency appeals had received more funds than at the same time last year, the economic crisis was exacerbating poverty and increasing need.

"It is clear that the global recession puts pressure on the aid budgets of all donor governments, but of course it puts immeasurably more pressure on crises-stricken people in poor countries," he said.

The UN has raised a total of $4.6bn over the past six months for its humanitarian appeals – but Holmes said it had identified $4.8bn of "unmet needs" – the biggest gap ever.

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UN's Ban praises Myanmar's junta

What a fool. He's an improvement over Kofi Annan but barely.

The high-stakes visit to Burma comes at a critical time for Ban, whose low-key approach to his job has been criticised as ineffectual. He came under further fire on arrival in Naypyidaw, the regime's headquarters, when he told the head of the junta, General Than Shwe: "I appreciate your commitment to moving your country forward."

"That is absolute nonsense," said Brad Adams, a Burma specialist at Human Rights Watch. "It's just what we implored him not to say, to make these diplomatic gaffes. Than Shwe has steadily moved his country backwards."

British officials were also furious at the remarks. They had urged Ban not to visit Burma, and risk handing the junta a propaganda prize with his visit, without first ensuring he would gain concessions in the form of the release of political prisoners and steps towards genuine democracy.

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20,000 civilians dead in final days of Sri Lanka war

Both sides of this ugly war had a complete lack of respect for civilians. Instead of praise, the UN should be leading the way for maintaining the peace, including equality for everyone. Reuters:

More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka's military operation to defeat Tamil Tigers rebels, The Times newspaper reported on Friday.

Sri Lanka's authorities say their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 in a no-fire zone where an estimated 100,000 Tamil civilians were sheltered and blame civilian casualties on rebels hiding among the civilians, the paper said.

Citing confidential U.N. documents it acquired, The Times said the civilian death toll in the no-fire zone soared from late April, with around 1,000 civilians killed daily until May 19. That was the day after Vellupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed.

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UN criticized over Sri Lanka

The end of the bloody war in Sri Lanka finally ended after decades and the end was a blood bath. A few weeks before the end I stumbled upon a protest march supporting the Tamil Tigers and saw the protesters camping out at Les Invalides for weeks. They waived signs that included photos of the wounded children and I had no doubt that they were real, as awful as they were. While I sympathized with the children I also remember decades of brutality by the Tamil Tigers. They were never hesitant to kill anyone who stepped in their way and it was the Tamil Tigers who popularized such methods as suicide belts, suicide bombings and using children as soldiers. I didn't recall seeing any photos of this during the protests.

The UN should have gone without praise - it was a bloody war and destructive war - but let's not forget about the horrific policies of the Tamil Tigers. Liberation and equality may have been high ideals but their use of low tactics is not worthy of praise either. What a waste of human life on both sides.

The accusations followed a resolution in the UN human rights council welcoming the Sri Lankan government victory, with no reference to human rights concerns over civilian casualties and the 300,000 Tamils made homeless, many of whom are interned in government camps.

But criticism was also aimed at the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who ­visited the biggest camp over the weekend and complimented the Sri Lankan government on its humanitarian role, and the security council for not speaking out officially about the human cost of the military victory.

"The human rights council performed abysmally," said Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch. "It's there to monitor human rights and the laws of war, and it completely failed – and failed to register any concern over the situation."

The UN did indeed perform poorly but that has been going on for decades. Read More......

Interesting interview with our new UN ambassador, Susan Rice

Just read Ben's piece, it's really interesting. She sounds like quite the character. Strong. No bull.

On walking and chewing gum at the same time:

"The whole point is we need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We don't have the luxury of viewing every issue, every country, every challenge in black and white terms. That was, in my opinion, part of the fallacy of the Bush Administration," she said. "But there are ways and means of accomplishing that. It's not always in every instance most productive to do it on a huge stage beating a drum - sometimes it is."

On Bolton:

Rice said she's setting into the Ambassador's traditional routine of high-gloss - but also very practical - dinners at the residences of other Security Council members and dignitaries. The Ambassador is sometimes a bit of a New York society figure, and Rice places herself somewhere between former Ambassadors Richard Holbrooke, a prince of the dinner party circuit, and the U.N. critic John Bolton, who turned in early and spent as little time as possible in New York.

"On the glitz glam spectrum, I'm not at the Holbrooke end," she said, "and I don't put myself on anything with John Bolton."

On UN reform and the Bush administration:

Rice also said she would continue to work on a favored Bush Administration cause, improving the function of the United Nations, though perhaps in a different spirit.

"They didn't invent U.N. reform - they gave it a bad name, but they didn't invent it," Rice said of her predecessors. "This is an institution that, despite its evident flaws, we are much better off having function effectively."

Love. Her. Read More......

I get so fed up with 3rd world types spending UN money

Until they understand the value of our hard earned money, we need to cut them off. And you know, the US pays more to the UN than any country in world...unless you add up the EU money, but hey, it's not a single country.

A former U.N. official who oversaw reconstruction funds in Afghanistan diverted half a million dollars from roads, schools and clinics to fund his luxury lifestyle, according to a confidential internal U.N. investigation.

The U.N. Procurement Task Force accused Gary K. Helseth, an American who headed the U.N. Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2006, in December of using the funds for lavish purchases, including first-class flights to Las Vegas and meals in posh restaurants in Copenhagen, Dubai, Florence and New York. Helseth oversaw more than $1 billion in reconstruction funds contributed by the United States and other international donors after the fall of the Taliban.

The probe is a cautionary tale about the risks of lax U.N. financial controls in Afghanistan as the Obama administration presses for a more central role for the United Nations in coordinating rebuilding efforts there.

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Radovan Karadzic transported to The Hague

Well, I guess since there is no Gitmo equivalent where he can be left and ignored for years, why not? The silly people at the UN War Crimes Tribunal obviously don't know how justice works. You know, when the times get tough, you ignore centuries of history and cast aside everything that you stand for to have the pleasure of blood lust. The UN needs a few neocons on the team so they can trash the system and reemerge as the former Soviet Union but still preach democratic values. Then again, who could they blame for following the rule of law since it's the UN who usually is scapegoated? It's all too much to think about and probably better if everyone could just grab their pitchforks and march in the streets. Hey, can we blame the French?

The former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, has been flown from the Serbian capital Belgrade to the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague.

He was moved from the court building where he had been held since his arrest last week after 13 years on the run.

He has been indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s.

His transfer comes hours after clashes at a rally attended by at least 10,000 supporters to protest about his arrest.

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Radovan Karadzic arrested in Serbia

After so many years I wondered if he would ever be arrested and brought to justice.

Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres and the politician considered most responsible for the deadly siege of Sarajevo, was arrested Monday evening in a Serbian police raid ending his 13 years as the world's most-wanted war crimes fugitive.

His alleged partner in the persecution and "cleansing" of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, remained at large.

A psychiatrist turned diehard Serbian nationalist politician, Karadzic is the suspected mastermind of mass killings that the U.N. war crimes tribunal described as "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history." They include the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe's worst slaughter since World War II.

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Russia, China block UN sanctions against Zimbabwe

Russia has ties to Robert Mugabe dating back to the Soviet Union days and China continues to sell military equipment to Zimbabwe in return for raw materials. (A relationship the West is familiar with in other regions of the world.) Targeted sanctions are fine though leaders such as Mugabe tend to find a way to make life more painful for the general population, so it's not the worst situation to have failed. Besides, the EU has folded on travel bans a few times in recent years so it's not like they could even maintain an existing travel ban. Time to move on to another plan. Read More......

Sudanese president to be charged with genocide

It's shocking to see this come to this point and it will be even more shocking if it manages to get the president to The Hague. This will be a first.

The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.

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Vote Mugabe or be raped?

The UN now views rape as a war crime. If the allegations of rape, torture and murder are proven, Robert Mugabe and his band of thugs should be dragged to The Hague and face crimes against humanity. This also means the EU will have to quit making exceptions for Mugabe and allowing him to travel to Europe for shopping trips. Enough. Read More......