Tag: climate change

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Q&A with Mary Robinson: what is climate justice

I had the good fortune to interview recently a great leader, a woman that I greatly admire: Mary Robinson, the first female President of Ireland (1990-1997), and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). We discussed the work she is doing on climate change justice through the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. We touched upon the role of women in climate change, human rights, the role of business and the what to do about the refugee crisis (over a month before much of the English-speaking press finally started to cover it with the depth it deserves).

Read the interview on the Road to Paris and the World Economic Forum blogs.

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SDGs marry energy and climate concerns

Those of us who spend most of our working lives sitting at a computer will perhaps find this hard to picture, but nearly one in five people on the planet has no access to electricity. Billions of people can’t take the things that we do for granted: kids doing their homework in the evening, a fridge to store food or medicine, giving birth in a safely and brightly lit room.

In addition, almost three billion people rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating. Women and young children are exposed daily to indoor air pollution that causes serious diseases – this is among the reasons why millions of children die every year before they get to the age of five.

Read the rest of the blog on the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit website. 

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Are we all focussing too much on “elephant” UKIP?

I’ve just read this really interesting article by Zoe Williams, which reviews George Lakoff’s theory about the way US progressives have been failing – for decades – to frame the issues they care about effectively. Instead they are letting the right do so over and over again, to the point that Democrats in power still have to work within a framework set by the right. This is pretty much true in many other countries.  Continue reading “Are we all focussing too much on “elephant” UKIP?”