The 42nd session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
took place
in Bonn in early June 2015. The aim of the session was to prepare a climate agreement that could be signed in Paris in December 2015. The meeting failed to make any substantial progress. Participant countries found it difficult to achieve compromises on a number of fundamental issues, and negotiators still have much to do to meet the deadline of the Paris meeting.
A brief history of international...
It would be difficult to say there was a breakthrough at the Arctic Council biennial session of the eight member-states’ foreign ministers, which took place on 24-25 April 2015. Some had earlier hastened to describe it almost as a failure.
Firstly, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov did not go to the Arctic Council session. However, Russia was appropriately represented – by Sergei Donskoi, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
Secondly, not a single new legally binding...
What should Russia expect from the US Chairmanship in the context of the ongoing sanctions pressure?
On April 24-25, 2015, the 9th Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council took place in Iqaluit, Nunavut in the north of Canada. The meeting marked the end of Canada’s Arctic Council Chairmanship and the start of the US Chairmanship. Russian delegations at such events have been traditionally led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. However, amidst certain logistical problems and a significant...
A response to “Unraveling the Enigma: Western Expert Community Seeks to Explain Russian Policy” by Dr. Igor Istomin
Climate change and environmental disasters are already challenging the traditional paradigms of constructivism, liberalism and realism. With respect to Dr. Istomin, Ukraine is the least of our worries. Climate action demands a new call for international cooperation and effective use of diplomacy to protect lives, global economies, environments, resources and peace.
At the heart of...
Interview with Alejandro Litovsky, CEO of the Earth Security group
Recently the
Earth Security Group
launched its annual
Earth Security Index 2015 report
, which outlines the resource security risks that countries and multinational companies face from a deepening of economic and political inter-dependencies at regional and global levels. The report presents an innovative visual tool to assess how the complexity of sustainability pressures may evolve into country risks. It applies it to seven...
... also more acute water shortages. If the temperatures markedly increase, disastrous effects like the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and changes in the Indian Ocean monsoon pattern appear likely.
The Indian government is hardly underestimating the ecology-generated damage to the national economy, but rather regards the solution of the ecological problems as unfeasible. According to the World Bank, lowering the atmospheric discharge of pollutants by 30 percent would cost India only 0.7 percent of ...
... Chamber of Commerce. 2011.
28
. Cf for example: Fostering Innovation for Green Growth. OECD Publishing. OECD. 2011.
29
. Cf for example: From Green Economies to Green Societies. UNESCO. 2011.
30
. Cf for example: Mulligan S. Reassessing the Crisis: Ecology and Liberal International Relations. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. Sage publications. April 2010, No. 35: pp. 137–162.
31
. For example: Huebert R., Exner-Pirot H., Lajeunesse A., Gulledge J. Climate Change & International Security: ...
The modern world is characterized by change and development, which leads to a growth in global energy consumption, primarily on the part of developed countries and developing countries with rapidly growing economies.
The economic crisis of 2008–2009 brought chaos to the global energy market, which resulted in an even more intense struggle for electrical power supply and energy resources between countries. Global competition, national and international interests, the North–South divide...
On October 30-November 2, 2014, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov visited Menaggio, Italy, to attend the 2nd Global Table "Limited Resources – Opportunities without Borders" devoted to issues of global resource management.
Co-sponsored by the BMW Foundation and Earth Security Group, the event attracted experts, diplomats and business and civil society representatives from Europe, Asia and Latin America, who focused on optimization of international and national mechanisms for managing...
Inteview with Igor Makarov
On September 23, 2014 New York hosted the UN Climate Summit, which was accompanied by massive demonstrations by environmentalists in the United States, Europe and Australia. Although the regulation of harmful carbon emissions and deforestation are central on the climate agenda, the establishment of a new international regime is still underway as countries markedly differ on the issue. RIAC expert
Igor Makarov
, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the World Economy...
