Podcasts about united nations conference

In this episode, journalist Puja Mehra is joined by economist Dr. Rajat Kathuria to explore the evolution of India's telecom sector. From the early days of competition and spectrum allocation to the challenges faced by both new and legacy operators, Dr. Kathuria discusses the regulatory hurdles and the shift in policies that shaped the industry. They also examine how the telecom sector has driven India's digital transformation, enabling advancements in payments, startups, and citizen services. Finally, Dr. Kathuria shares insights on the future of telecom, suggesting potential reforms in spectrum allocation for a more streamlined and efficient sector. ABOUT DR. RAJAT KATHURIA Dr. Rajat Kathuria spent over 12 years with the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, teaching post-graduate students Managerial Economics and International Trade. He has also previously worked with the World Bank in Washington D.C. as a Consultant, and worked on research assignments for a number of international organizations, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), LIRNEasia, The World Bank and The Asian Development Bank (ADB). For more of our coverage check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thecore.in⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube

This week we talk about emissions, carbon credits, and climate reparations.We also discuss Baku, COP meetings, and petrostates.Recommended Book: The Struggle for Taiwan by Sulmaan Wasif KhanTranscriptIn 2016, a group of 195 nations signed the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, usually just called the Paris Agreement, which was negotiated the previous year, and which, among other things, formalized the idea of attempting to keep the global average temperature from increasing by 1.5 C, which is about 2.7 F, above pre-industrial levels.The really bad stuff, climate-wise, was expected to happen at around 2 degrees C above that pre-industrial level, so the 1.5 degrees cutoff made sense as sort of a breakwater meant to protect humanity and the natural world from the most devastating consequences of human-amplified climate change.This has served decently well as a call-to-arms for renewable energy projects and other efforts meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and many nations have actually made really solid strides in that direction since this agreement was formalized, dramatically truncating their emissions in a variety of ways, while also laying the groundwork for long-term reductions by installing a whole lot of solar and wind, reviving old and building new nuclear power facilities, reinforcing and expanding their grids, including adding all sorts of large-scale battery storage, and figuring out ways to reduce energy consumption, which has allowed for the shut-down of coal and oil plants.Shorter-term solutions, like replacing more polluting and emitting sources of energy, like coal, with gas, have also put a big dent in overall global emissions, especially for entities like the US and Europe; this isn't ideal as a permanent measure, because there are still a lot of emissions associated with gas, especially its transport, because of leakage, and gas itself, in the atmosphere, has really significant greenhouse properties, but in the short-term this has proven to be one of the most impactful solutions for some nations and large corporations, and it's increasingly being seen as a transitionary measure, even by those who oppose the use of any fossil fuels long-term.Things have been going decently well, then, even if progress is still far short of where it needs to be for most countries to meet their Paris Agreement commitments, and far slower than many people who are watching this space, and analyzing whether we'll be able to avoid triggering those much-worse climate outcomes, would prefer.One issue we're running into, now, is that those original commitments were a little fuzzy, as the phrase “preindustrial period” could mean many different periods, even if it's commonly assumed to be something like 1850 to 1900, in the lead-up to humanity's full-on exploitation of fossil fuels and the emergence of what we might call the modern era—society empowered by things like coal and oil and gas, alongside the full deployment of electrical grids.Throughout this period, though, from the mid-19th century to today, the climate has experienced huge swings year to year, and decade to decade. The evidence showing that we humans are throwing natural systems way off their equilibrium are very clear at this point, and it isn't a question of whether we're changing the climate—it's more a question of how much, how quickly, and compared to what; what baseline are we actually using, because even during that commonly used 1850 to 1900 span of time, the climate fluctuated a fair bit, so it's possible to pick and choose baseline numbers from a range of them depending on what sort of picture you want to paint.Research from the World Meteorological Organization in 2022 found that, as of that year, we were probably already something like 1.15 degrees C above preindustrial levels, but that it was hard to tell because La Niña, a weather phenomenon that arises periodically, alongside its opposite, El Niño, had been cooling things down and dampening the earth-warming impacts of human civilization for about three years.They estimated, taking La Niña's impact into consideration, that the world would probably bypass that breakwater 1.5 degrees C milestone sometime in the next four years—though this bypassing might be temporary, as global temperatures would increase for a few years because of the emergence of El Niño.Adding to the complexity of this calculation is that aforementioned variability in the climate, region to region, and globally. The WMO estimated that through 2027, the world is likely to fluctuate between 1.1 and 1.8 degrees C above preindustrial levels—and that at that higher range, El Niño might tip things into the especially dangerous 2 degree C territory the Paris Agreement was supposed to help us avoid.By late-2024, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the world had stepped past the 1.5 degrees threshold into unfamiliar climactic terrain.Three of the five leading research groups that keep tabs on this matter have said that in addition to 2024 being the warmest year on record, it will also be the first year we've ever surpassed that 1.5 degree level.Notably, simply popping up above 1.5 degrees doesn't suggest we're now permanently living in that long worried about climate nightmarish world: there are significant, normal fluctuations in this kind of thing, alongside those associated with the El Niño/La Niña patterns; there are a lot of variables acting upon our climate, in other words, in addition to the human variables that are pushing those averages and fluctuating ranges up, over time.The concern here, though, even if we drop back down below 1.5 degrees C for a while is that this temperature band opens up a whole new spectrum of weather-related consequences, ranging from substantial, persistent, crop-killing, barely survivable heat and drought in some parts of the world, to things like larger, more frequent, and more difficult to predict storm systems, like the ones we've already seen in abundance this and last year, but bigger and wilder and in more areas that don't typically see such storms.What I'd like to talk about today is what happened at a recent climate-policy focused meeting, COP29, and the international response to that meeting.—The United Nations Conference of the Parties of the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP meetings, are held every year in a different host country, and they're meant to serve as a formal space where governments can present their goals and boast of their climate-related accomplishments. They also serve as a platform for negotiations related to things like emissions standards and goal-setting, like that aforementioned 1.5 degrees C temperature level we've been trying to avoid hitting.The most recent of these meetings, COP29, was held in Baku, the capitol of Azerbaijan, in mid- to late-November of 2024. And that location was pretty controversial from the get-go because Azerbaijan is a petro-state: its authoritarian government basically funded and sustained by the sale of oil and gas, all of which flows through a state-owned, corruption-laden, local elite-profiting energy company.This isn't the first time a full-on petro-state has hosted a COP meeting, as COP28 was held in Dubai, in the UAE, which was also controversial.But this one was seen as a step even further toward what might read as the appropriation or capture of the COP meetings for the benefit of fossil fuel entities, as the meeting was partly hosted by so-called official partners, which were fossil fuel business interests directly owned by the country's president, while others weren't directly owned, but were connected to his family's other businesses, all of them thus linked to both authoritarian corruption, and the wealth associated with fossil fuel focused economics.As a result, there were allegations that this whole meeting was premised on providing a notorious source of greenhouse gas emissions, which has every reason to try to keep those emitting products available for as long as possible, a venue for greenwashing their efforts, while also giving them the power to moderate discussions related to global emissions targets and other climate change-oriented issues; a major conflict of interest, basically.The Azerbaijani president, leading up to the meeting, countered that critiques of his country's government and human rights record and prominence as a fossil fuel exporter were all part of a smear campaign, and that these unwarranted, preemptive criticisms wouldn't stop those running COP29 from achieving their goal of helping the world “cope with the negative impacts of climate change.”That statement, too, was criticized, as it implies fossil fuel are more interested in pushing the world to adapt to a climate change and its impacts, rather than attempting to halt the emissions that are causing said climate change; many such companies seem keen to keep pumping oil and burning coal and gas forever, in other words, and their efforts in this regard thus tend to orient around figuring out what the new, warmer, more chaotic world looks like, rather than entertaining the idea of changing their business model in any substantial way.So leading up to this meeting, expectations were low, and by some estimates and according to some analysis, those low expectations were met.Article 6 of the Paris Agreement was a big topic of discussion, for instance, as this article outlines how countries can cooperate with each other to reach their climate targets—and this collaboration is predicated on a carbon credit system.So if County A reduces their emissions by more than the targets set by this group, they can sell the gap, the amount of carbon equivalents not emitted into the atmosphere, to Country B, which failed to reach its targets, but which can bring its emissions into accord by acquiring those credits, which according to such a system count as emissions reductions.This same general concept applies to companies, like airlines and even fossil fuel producing energy companies, as well.But while the agreement reached at COP29 does establish a UN-backed carbon credit trading body, which has been heralded as a key step on the way toward concluding Article 6 negotiations that could open up a bunch of new finance for smaller and poorer countries in particular—as they could sell their carbon credits to their wealthier, more emitting fellow COP members—despite that progress, the scaffolding that exists now is generally considered to be leaky and rife with abuse potential, as the UN body doesn't really have the teeth to enforce anything or do much checking into claims made by governments and corporations. A lot of this system is basically on the honor system, and that means just like the stated goals presented by governments and corporations as to when they're be net-zero and when they'll reach the even further-off goal of zero emissions, these claims are often worth little or nothing because there's no mechanism for punishing entities that fail to live up to their boasts and ambitions.A company or government could say they plan to hit net-zero by 2035, then, but if they don't do anything that would allow them to hit that goal in that lead-up to that year, they get to keep claiming to be part of the solution, without having to do any of the work to actually achieve anything. This grants them the veil of sustainability, and without any real consequence.Also notable here is that this meeting's progress on Article 6, establishing that UN body, was pushed through using a questionable procedural move that disallowed negotiation, despite this same proposal having been dismissed after negotiation at previous COP meetings.So while it's arguably good to see progress of any kind on these matters, that this component of Article 6 was voted down previously, but then forced through using what amounts to a technicality early on at COP29 is being side-eyed by a lot of COP watchers who worry about these meetings being coopted by forces that are keen to see this carbon system formalized not because it will help the world reduce emissions, but because it will create a new asset class worth hundreds of billions of dollars, which many of them hope to profit from.It's worth noting, too, that all of the carbon credit markets that have been tried, so far, have either collapsed or served as mechanisms for greenwashing emitting activities; less than 16% of carbon credits issued up till this point represent actual, provable emissions reductions, and most of them are basically just dressed-up money grabs. This new move, despite representing progress of a sort, isn't being seen as substantial enough to change the current carbon credit paradigm, as those issues have not been addressed, yet.All that said, the big news out of COP29 was a deal that requires wealthier nations make a big payout to poorer nations in the form of climate finance; so paying for renewable energy infrastructure, paying for flood walls, things like that, so that poorer countries can leap-frog the fossil fuel era, and so they can deal with and survive the consequences of climate change, which is something they bear a lot less responsibility for than wealthier, far more emitting countries.Those on the receiving end, representing the nations that will receive payments via this plan, were aiming for a minimum of $500 billion, payable in full by 2035, and they were pushing for a lot more than that: something like $1.3 trillion.The final sum was lower than the minimum target, though, weighing in at just $300 billion; which isn't great in contrast to those hoped-for figures, though on the upside, it is three-times what was promised as part of a previously negotiated deal from 2009.Representatives from poorer nations have expressed their discontentment with this agreement, saying that the sum is paltry compared to the challenges they face in trying to shift to renewables while also scrambling to defend against increasingly dangerous temperatures and weather patterns.They've also criticized the meeting's leadership for basically gaveling this version of the agreement through before it could be commented upon by those on the receiving end of these payouts.Summing up the consequences of this meeting, then, a lot of money matters were discussed, which is important, and more money was promised to poorer nations by wealthy nations than at earlier meetings, which is also generally considered to be vital to this transition, and to overall fairness within this context—since again, these nations have contributed very little to the issue of climate change, compared to wealthier nations, and they bear a disproportionate amount of the negative consequences of climate change, as well.There are serious concerns that some of these things were passed without the usual level of democratic consideration, and that some of the money talk, especially related to carbon credits, could represent basically a cash-grab by entities that aren't super-interested in actually changing the status quo, but are very interested in making potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars from what amounts to a fabricated asset class that they can spin-up out of nothing.There's a chance that some of this, even the stuff that's sparking the most concern at the moment, and which seems to be a cynical appropriation of this group and this whole process, could actually lead to more substantial agreements at future COP meetings.COP30 will be based in Brazil, and Brazil's current leadership at least has shown itself to be decently concerned with actual climate issues, as opposed to just the money associated with them. And previous meetings have tended to build upon the agreements of their precursors—so the establishment of a UN body for carbon credits could clear the way for an actually empowered, punishment-capable institution that holds companies and countries to their word on things, rather than simply serving as a symbolic institution that watches over a made-up asset class, which seems to be the case, currently. That asset class could become less prone to abuse and manipulation, and could help with this energy transition as it's ostensibly meant to; but that'll be determined in large part by what happens at the next couple meetings.However this policymaking plays out, we've stepped into a world in which 1.5 C is no longer a far off concern, but a lived reality, at least periodically, and that could nudge things more in the direction of practical outcomes, rather than aspirations and fuzzy goals from this and similar bodies; though the consequences of this and the last few COP meetings have arguably led to luke-warm progress in that direction, at best.Show Noteshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/u-n-negotiators-take-key-step-to-global-carbon-deal-1e23433ehttps://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/article-64-mechanismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Azerbaijanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conferencehttps://www.semafor.com/article/11/24/2024/the-cop29-deal-is-even-more-disappointing-than-it-lookshttps://apnews.com/article/united-nations-climate-talks-baku-azerbaijan-finance-8ab629945660ee97d58cdbef10136f35https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/24/cop29s-new-carbon-market-rules-offer-hope-after-scandal-and-deadlockhttps://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/4382153/cop29-baku-breakthrough-disappoints-trigger-fresh-wave-climate-financehttps://news.mit.edu/2023/explained-climate-benchmark-rising-temperatures-0827https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/18/climate-crisis-world-temperature-targethttps://grist.org/economics/how-the-world-gave-up-on-1-5-degrees-overshoot/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/27/global-warming-fight-paris-agreement-future/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Anna Halpine, the CEO of the FEMM Foundation—a research and evidence-based program dedicated to improving women's health—discusses the importance of boldly speaking up, especially if you're in the unrepresented silent majority. Anna shares her story of creating disruption at age 21 at the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in 1999. She recalls watching a group of 32 young people claim to represent the world's three billion youth and demand the implementation of certain policies: abortion as a human right, sexual rights for children, and the removal of parental rights. Anna found herself questioning, “Do these people represent me?” Listen in as Anna urges us to speak up for truth and advocate for our rights, enabling us to transform our communities for the better. Resources Learn more about the World Youth Alliance and FEMM Foundation. Create a free THINQ Account and download the THINQ Media app on your smart TV to access more trusted content like this on topics from all channels of culture at thinqmedia.com. Apply the THINQ Framework as you think through cultural topics. Attend THINQ events where you can gather with like-minded leaders, ask better questions and have conversations that lead to wisdom: Bring the 28-Day Digital Fast to your family, workplace, or church throughout the month of January. More from the THINQ Podcast Network: Rhythms for Life with Rebekah and Gabe Lyons The InFormed Parent with Suzanne Phillips NextUp with Grant Skeldon NeuroFaith with Curt Thompson UnderCurrent with Gabe Lyons

President Michael D. Higgins is in New York for a United Nations Conference, but he's not the only one. Our Taoiseach, Simon Harris, is also in The Big Apple and call it coincidence or fate, but they can't stop bumping into each other. Hit play now to hear the full episode.

In an era defined by technological transformation and shifting economic landscapes, the challenge of ensuring equitable global development has never been greater. Trade, when facilitated effectively, can be a powerful tool to bridge divides and foster sustainable growth, but only if all countries – especially developing ones – can participate fully. Ahead of its 60th anniversary, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is leading the charge to make global trade more inclusive. In this episode of Voice Mail, we sit down with Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD's Secretary-General, to explore how the organization is supporting developing countries in navigating the complexities of the digital economy and ensuring no one is left behind. Grynspan discusses how UNCTAD's collaboration with partners like the UPU is helping to reduce barriers for small businesses and empower women entrepreneurs through initiatives like eTrade for Women. Grynspan is certain: even in the rapidly changing world, trade can remain a force for good, if we ensure that the weakest can also have a seat at the table.

Brent Hamachek, author of Dissidently Speaking: Change the Words. Change the War, is the VP & Associate Publisher for Human Events Media Group. He is the author of numerous books and essays, including collaborating with Charlie Kirk on his first book, Time for a Turning Point. He has been a featured speaker for the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He also spoke at a United Nations Conference in 2018. He earned a BS in Finance & Economics from Lake Superior State University; a post-graduate degree from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin, and he also did his master's studies in theology at Loyola University Chicago.

The Weekly Tradecast looks at today's challenges and the opportunities of tomorrow with special guest UN Trade and Development Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan. We'll be talking about her vision for UN Trade and Development, how to address new challenges and why we must move forward together to create an inclusive and sustainable future. Founded in 1964 as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – or UNCTAD – our organization promotes a fairer economic system and helps developing countries to access the benefits of global trade. Now UN Trade and Development is building on six decades of success as our work evolves to keep improving the lives of billions of people around the world. Tune in to Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan to find out what it takes to lead this global organization and get her perspective on the course of development in a changing world.

The Richard Syrett Show, May 2nd, 2024 Mass riot rages for hours at UCLA, police absent https://www.wnd.com/2024/05/total-anarchy-mass-riot-rages-hours-ucla-police-absent/  Richard C. Lyons, Author of The DNA of Democracy Volume 1 and Shadows of the Acropolis: Volume 2 KEEPING AN EYE ON YOUR MONEY Politicians are rolling the dice on the electric vehicle industry with your money. https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/when-politicians-gamble,-taxpayers-lose Kris Sims, Alberta Director of The Canadian Taxpayers Federation IN DEFENSE OF WOMEN ‘Biological sex' sports bill is quickly quashed in B.C. legislature https://tnc.news/2024/05/01/b-c-conservative-bill-males-womens-sports/ Coach Blade - A sport performance who develops athletes, mentors coaches, co-author of Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial Are Destroying Sport Who Is Really to Blame for the Pro-Hamas Protests on College Campuses? https://thepostmillennial.com/violent-clashes-break-out-between-gaza-israel-protesters-at-ucla  Brent Hamachek, author of Dissidently Speaking: Change the Words. Change the War, is the VP & Associate Publisher for Human Events Media Group. He is the author of numerous books and essays, including collaborating with Charlie Kirk on his first book, Time for a Turning Point. He has been a featured speaker for the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He also spoke at a United Nations Conference in 2018. https://www.dissidentlyspeaking.com https://www.amazon.com/Dissidently-Speaking-Change-Words-War/dp/1962578119/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1707492958&sr=1-1 LEDREW: Trudeau's not leaving and he's rigged it so no one can force him out https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/ledrew-trudeaus-not-leaving-and-hes-rigged-it-so-no-one-can-force-him-out Stephen LeDrew is a lawyer, former President of the Liberal Party of Canada and Host of The LeDrew 3 Minute Interview https://www.stephenledrew.ca Canada's Trans Mountain pipeline is finally open for business after completion of expansion efforts https://www.rebelnews.com/canadas_trans_mountain_pipeline_is_finally_open_for_business_after_completion_of_expansion_efforts Liberals hold up $34B Trans Mountain boondoggle as example of socialist success https://nationalpost.com/opinion/liberals-hold-up-34b-trans-mountain-boondoggle-as-example-of-socialist-success Dan McTeague – President of Canadians For Affordable Energy www.affordableenergy.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Brent Hamachek, author of Dissidently Speaking: Change the Words. Change the War, is the VP & Associate Publisher for Human Events Media Group. He is the author of numerous books and essays, including collaborating with Charlie Kirk on his first book, Time for a Turning Point. He has been a featured speaker for the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He also spoke at a United Nations Conference in 2018. He earned a BS in Finance & Economics from Lake Superior State University; a postgraduate degree from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin, and he also did his master's studies in theology at Loyola University Chicago. https://www.brenthamachek.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Richard Poe is a New York Times-bestselling author and award-winning journalist. His best-known book is The Shadow Party, an exposé of George Soros and his color revolutions, co-written with David Horowitz. Poe is presently writing a history of globalism. His work can be found at richardpoe.substack.com, RichardPoe.com, and @RealRichardPoe.

Between Black Sea disruption and two key canals choking under the pressure of climate and war, a triple whammy of blocked arteries threatens world trade. The impacts on the wider global economy could be profound. So what happened to all that talk of supply chain resilience? We have drafted in a couple experts this week to help me make sense of it all: Ryan Petersen, the founder and CEO of digital freight forwarder Flexport Jan Hoffmann, Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Trade Facilitation Section For More information about Lloyd's list Intelligence's Predictive Fleet Analytics, follow this link: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/predictive-fleet-analytics?utm_source=Lloyd%27s_List__Podcast_Referal&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=PFA_Red_Sea_Crisis&utm_id=PFA_Pursuit_Team

This episode of "Small Islands, Big Picture" explores debt in SIDS – a critical challenge with no easy solutions. Emily and Matt explain why many island states have built up such large debt burdens in the first place, how this impacts SIDS in different ways, and why it is so difficult to reduce. They discuss what can be done to augment SIDS' ‘fiscal space', whose responsibility it is to help them achieve this, and how new financial mechanisms might help.In “Island Voices”, Rachid Bouhia talks about how better international support is critical for alleviating debt. In the “Explainer” section, Gail Hurley – who specialises in the finance challenges of SIDS – provides 10 reasons why debt is so pressing, but also why we should remain hopeful and continue pushing for global change. In “The Big Picture”, Enrico Gaveglia and Shakira Mustapha discuss the challenges of alleviating debt burdens on the ground. Finally, in “No Stupid Questions”, Matt and Emily answer ‘Why is the issue of debt in SIDS not as simple as just paying down the debt?'.Featuring:Emily Wilkinson (host) | RESI Director and Senior Research Fellow, ODIMatthew Bishop (host) | RESI Director and Senior Lecturer, University of SheffieldRachid Bouhia | RESI Director and Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)Gail Hurley | Independent Advisor and Senior Researcher on Debt and Development FinanceEnrico Gaveglia | Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) MaldivesShakira Mustapha | Research Lead at the Centre for Disaster ProtectionResources:Programme page | Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative (RESI)RESI policy brief | A global bargain for resilient prosperity in Small Island Developing StatesSIDS4 website | Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing StatesEmily and Rachid's blog | Small-Island Developing States need urgent support to avoid debt defaultsEmily and Kanni Wignaraja's Project Syndicate article | Credit Ratings and Climate ChaosShakira's paper | Innovations in sovereign debt: taking debt pause clauses to scale Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our latest scrappy episode, the Green & Red Gang segues from its this week in radical history discussion of the Christmas Bombings of 1972 to a comparison of the way that the U.S. fought, and holds responsibility for, the brutal wars in Vietnam and Gaza. We also talk about the latest United Nations Conference of Parties on the climate crisis (COP28). Held in a notorious petrostate, the United Arab Emirates, 200 countries agreed to begin a phase out of fossil fuels by 2050. also raises the issue of climate activists being targeted with lawsuits, RICO charges and jail time in the Global North, while land and climate defenders in the Global South face torture and murder. All this and more on the Green and Red Podcast! ----------------------------------------- Outro- "I' Ain't Marching Anymore" by Phil Ochs Links// +G&R: How State Violence in the Philippines is Propped Up by the U.S. and APEC w/ Human Rights Activist Brandon Lee (https://bit.ly/479iW4S) + G&R: Kissinger is Finally Dead! Goodbye to a War Criminal . . . and the war in Ukraine muddles along (https://bit.ly/3TNncnV) +G&R: JFK . . . 60 Years of Myths, Lies and Disinformation (https://bit.ly/3Ryvo8t) Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠ Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠ This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Scott.

The United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP28) is underway in Dubai. Past COPs have led to governmental initiatives that have real consequences for financial services businesses in their day-to-day operations. Transition plans and internationally agreed sustainable reporting standards are two examples of this.In this episode of Compliance Clarified, Alexander Robson, managing editor of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, is joined from Dubai by Lindsey Rogerson, senior editor for Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, to discuss the key initiatives emerging from COP28 and what they will likely mean for financial market participants.The discussion includes the methane pledge and what that will mean for asset managers and banks' lending books, and the significance of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCOs) consultation of 21 good practices for integrity in carbon markets. It also considers some of the emerging winners in terms of asset managers winning multi-billion-dollar investment mandates.The Compliance Clarified podcast series covers a wide range of topics that affect compliance officers at financial institutions and aims to help them navigate the often challenging regulatory environment. It considers the significant challenges of the day and offers practical ideas for emerging best practices.The podcast is available on Google, Apple & SpotifyAdditional resources:Navigating Past the Noise Report from Thomson Reuters: www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/ESG_Navigating-Past-the-Noise.pdfAsset managers with proven green credentials to benefit from wall of money: http://go-ri.tr.com/qEbXTICentral banks announce task force on adaptation finance: http://go-ri.tr.com/tZIsYMNet Zero Banking Alliance unveils transition finance metrics to help banks better report on decarbonisation efforts: http://go-ri.tr.com/J9bIfxCFTC consults on voluntary carbon derivatives, as voluntary framework reached on environmental offset standards: http://go-ri.tr.com/WWCVNtIOSCO consults on good practices to promote integrity in voluntary carbon markets: http://go-ri.tr.com/2qPwFgIFRS launches sustainable knowledge hub at COP28: http://go-ri.tr.com/gEoJIo Compliance Clarified is a podcast from Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.Listen to wide-ranging, insightful discussions on all things compliance for financial services firms. We delve into the hot topics of the day, the challenges faced and offer up practical ideas for emerging good practice. We de-mystify regulation and explore the art, as well as the science, of the ever-expanding role of the compliance officer.  Enforcements, digital transformation, regulatory change, governance, culture, conduct risk – anything and everything impacting the compliance function is up for discussion.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (12/05/2023): 3:05pm- On Tuesday, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a notable exchange, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) accused the bureau of violating the Fourth Amendment by routinely accessing communications between Americans without receiving a constitutionally necessary court-order beforehand. 3:15pm- Investigative reporter for The Daily Caller James Lynch writes that “the Department of Justice (DOJ) secured court orders to prevent Google from informing congressional staffers of the DOJ's efforts to monitor their communications, according to court documents. Legal group Empower Oversight released the five court orders Monday after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the records related to the DOJ's previously unknown attempts to monitor the communications of staffers conducting oversight of the department.” You can read the full article here: https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/04/doj-blocked-google-informing-congressional-staffers-spied-court-orders/ 3:20pm- During Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray which FBI official made the decision to raid Mar-a-Lago, the home of former President Donald Trump, and retrieve classified documents. Wray said no single individual made the decision. 3:30pm- On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the effects of a Biden Administration rule proposal change to Title IX which would expand the definition of sexual discrimination to include any school policy that prevents biological males identifying as female from competing in women's athletic competitions. Among the individuals testifying during the hearing is NCAA swimming champion, and women's sports advocate, Riley Gaines. Gaines insisted that there should be a place for everyone in collegiate sports, but that it isn't safe or fair for biological males to compete against biological females. 3:40pm- During Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray if anyone at the bureau was fired after targeting Catholics and inappropriately labeling them as radical hate group members. 4:05pm- According to a report from NBC4 New York, “[a]t least four gold bars tied to the FBI search of Sen. Robert Menendez's home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing the state's senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor records from a 2013 robbery case show. The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police to recover the gold bars stolen from him. In the 2013 robbery, Daibes reported $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater police records show. Police later caught four suspects with the stolen goods.” You can read the full report from Jonathan Dienst, Courtney Copenhagen, and Tom Winter here: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/gold-bars-featured-in-bob-menendez-bribe-case-linked-to-2013-robbery-records-show/4919801/ 4:20pm- In a new advertisement, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)—who is now running for Mayor of Houston—accidentally provides her supporters with the wrong election date! A graphic featured in the commercial encourages voters to cast their ballots on or before December 7th—however, the election is actually taking place on December 9th. 4:30pm- Brandon Drey of The Daily Wire writes: “A federal court on Monday halted the prison sentence for Douglas Mackey, who was convicted earlier this year of election interference for posting memes that mocked Hillary Clinton voters to cast their ballot via text during the 2016 presidential election. Mackey was accused of a ‘scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote' after a Twitter account he ran under the handle ‘Ricky Vaughn' posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.” You can read the full article here: https://www.dailywire.com/news/douglas-mackeys-meme-related-prison-sentence-halted-by-federal-court 4:40pm- During a speech at the 2023 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that coal fired power plants should not be permitted to exist anywhere in the world. According to the audio, he may have emitted “natural gas” of his own making while on stage… 4:50pm- On Sunday evening, a disturbing Pro-Palestinian protest in Philadelphia took place— consisting of anti-Semitic chants and the intentional targeting of a restaurant owned by an American-Israeli chef. Only one national news network reported on the story. 5:05pm- On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the effects of a Biden Administration rule proposal change to Title IX which would expand the definition of sexual discrimination to include any school policy that prevents biological males identifying as female from competing in women's athletic competitions. Among the individuals testifying during the hearing is NCAA swimming champion, and women's sports advocate, Riley Gaines. Gaines insisted that there should be a place for everyone in collegiate sports, but that it isn't safe or fair for biological males to compete against biological females. 5:40pm- Rich reveals that he sneaks wine into movie theaters. Matt claims it's violative of the theater rules—no outside concessions! 6:05pm- On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the effects of a Biden Administration rule proposal change to Title IX which would expand the definition of sexual discrimination to include any school policy that prevents biological males identifying as female from competing in women's athletic competitions. Among the individuals testifying during the hearing is NCAA swimming champion, and women's sports advocate, Riley Gaines. Gaines insisted that there should be a place for everyone in collegiate sports, but that it isn't safe or fair for biological males to compete against biological females. 6:10pm- During Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray why the bureau refused to concede that the Hunter Biden laptop story was authentic prior to the 2020 presidential election—especially after members of the federal government worked with social media companies to suppress the story and deny its validity. 6:20pm- In the 1990 Christmas-classic Home Alone, 8-year-old Kevin McCallister famously purchases a grocery cart-full of items for less than $20. One TikTok user calculated how much Kevin would have to spend in 2023 in order to buy those same groceries—an estimated $68, meaning there has been a 248% increase in prices since the movie's theatrical release! Plus, Henry continues to insist that Eyes Wide Shut is a Christmas film. 6:40pm- Ari Blaff of National Review writes: “The Department of Justice is preventing two would-be whistleblowers from testifying in the Biden impeachment investigation, House Republicans claim in a report on the status of their investigation released Tuesday. The 78-page report, issued by the House Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Oversight Committees, accuses the DOJ of stonewalling the congressional investigation into allegations that the Biden administration gave the president's son special treatment while investigating his failure to pax federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018.” You can read the full report here: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/doj-blocking-whistleblowers-from-testifying-in-hunter-biden-probe-house-gop-investigators-say/

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (12/04/2023): 3:05pm- In her most recent New York Times article, journalist Li Yuan documents that an increasing number of Chinese citizens are fleeing their country and crossing the U.S. Southern border illegally. Yuan writes that “[t]he most harrowing part of their journey was trekking through the brutal jungle in Panama known as the Darién Gap.” Chinese citizens are willing to endure the strenuous migration in order to flee a totalitarian regime willing to torment its citizens. You can read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/business/darien-gap-china-immigration.html 3:15pm- On Monday, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum announced he will suspend his long-shot presidential campaign. According to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Gov. Burgum had only garnered 0.6% support from Republican voters. The Daily Beast reports that Burgum is considered a potential cabinet member, if Donald Trump were to win a second term as president. 3:25pm- While appearing on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed that there is now enough internal support from House Republicans to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden regarding money his family received from overseas business associates while serving as Vice President in the Obama Administration. 3:35pm- In a video posted to the Republican Caucus House Oversight Committee's X account, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) alleges that Owasco P.C., a Hunter Biden business, made direct monthly payments to then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to newly discovered bank records. Comer added: “Hunter Biden is under an investigation by the Department of Justice for using Owasco P.C. for tax evasion and other serious crimes.” You can read more here: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bank-records-show-direct-monthly-payment-from-hunter-bidens-corporation-to-joe-biden/ 3:50pm- While appearing on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, former RNC Chairman Reince Priebus noted that if Democrats truly believed democracy is on the ballot in 2024, they would run a presidential candidate much stronger than Joe Biden. 3:55pm- While speaking with CBS News' John Dickerson, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney claimed Mike Johnson serving as Speaker of the House during the 2024 presidential election creates an “existential crisis.” She continued, “we have to ensure that we don't have a situation where an election that might be thrown into the House of Representatives is overseen by a Republican majority.” 4:05pm- On Friday, George Santos became the sixth congressman in U.S. history to be expelled from the House of Representatives. The House voted 311 to 114 in favor of removing him following numerous allegations of lying about his background and a 23-count indictment that includes allegations he “repeatedly, without authorization” charged donor credit cards—depositing funds into his own bank account. Meanwhile, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) remains a member of the House of Representatives despite pleading guilty to pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building just prior to the House holding its vote on a stopgap spending measure to avoid a government shutdown. As Rich notes, Bowman's only punishment was a modest fine and a written letter of apology. 4:10pm- While appearing on The View, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) reacted to George Santos' expulsion from the House by stating that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) should also be removed from office. Fetterman explained, “Menendez, I think is really a senator for Egypt. You know, not New Jersey. So, I really think he needs to go.” Menendez has been charged with acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, and with accepting bribes in exchange for influence. 4:15pm- Brandon Drey of The Daily Wire writes, “A subpoena request filed in Congress to grant lawmakers access to the flight logs connected to deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was allegedly blocked last week by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). Durbin, who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, reportedly rejected the request brought forward by Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn in early November. She accused Durbin of standing in the way of certifying the request after a contentious committee meeting on Thursday.” You can read the full article here: https://www.dailywire.com/news/sen-blackburn-says-democrat-led-senate-committee-chair-blocked-epstein-flight-logs-subpoena 4:30pm- If Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) were to resign from the U.S. Senate, would Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) replace him with his wife Tammy Murphy? Last month, Tammy Murphy formally announced her intention to run for U.S. Senate challenging Menendez for his seat. 4:40pm- During Sunday's Eagles-49ers game, San Francisco linebacker Tre Greenlaw and Dom DiSandro, the head of Eagles security, were ejected from the game following a sideline scuffle that DiSandro attempted to break up. 5:05pm- Dr. Wilfred Reilly—Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University & Author of “Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his latest article at National Review, “There is No Trans Genocide.” Dr. Reilly writes: “Why do respected institutions continue to propound verifiably wrong conspiracy theories about how dangerous America is?” Rich and Dr. Riley also discuss a disturbing Pro-Palestinian protest in Philadelphia on Sunday night that consisted of anti-Semitic chants and the intentional targeting of a restaurant owned by an American-Israeli chef. Plus, the Canadian Human Rights Commission declares that Christmas is racist! You can read the full article here: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/there-is-no-trans-genocide/. And you can pre-order Dr. Reilly's upcoming book here: https://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Liberal-Teacher-Told/dp/0063265974. 5:40pm- Ellie Rushing of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes: “Two security guards at Macy's in Center City were stabbed, one fatally, inside the iconic department store Monday morning, police said. Shortly before 11 a.m., a 30-year-old man—identified by law enforcement sources as Tyrone Tunnell—attempted to steal some hats from the store at 13th and Market Streets. When security guards confronted Tunnell and retrieved the stolen items, he initially left without incident, said Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford. But about 10 minutes later, Tunnell returned, then approached one of the guards and started stabbing him, Stanford said. When a second security guard attempted to intervene, Stanford said, Tunnell slashed and stabbed that guard as well. One of the men, a 30-year-old who had been stabbed in the neck, died from his injuries at Jefferson Hospital a short time later.” You can read the full article here: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/macys-stabbing-philadelphia-center-city-20231204.html 5:50pm- On Monday, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum announced he will suspend his long-shot presidential campaign. According to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Gov. Burgum had only garnered 0.6% support from Republican voters. The Daily Beast reports that Burgum is considered a potential cabinet member, if Donald Trump were to win a second term as president. 6:05pm- Zach Jewell of The Daily Wire writes: “The Biden administration is pushing countries to ‘accelerate' their climate action and spending $3 billion in taxpayer dollars as a pledge to climate and ‘gender equity' funds, the White House announced Saturday… Buried deep in the White House fact sheet are commitments to advancing ‘gender equity amid climate change,' which include an additional $449 million for new programs such as Global Girls Creating Change, a program that seeks to give 900 girls and young women in 29 different countries ‘professional opportunities in the sustainable economy.'” You can read the full article here: https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-announces-3-billion-for-green-projects-overseas-including-nearly-500m-for-gender-equity 6:20pm- During a speech at the 2023 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that coal fired power plants should not be permitted to exist anywhere in the world. 6:35pm- While speaking in Dubai, Vice President Kamala Harris bizarrely said it was necessary to “revitalize the Palestinian Authority” in response to war between Israel and Hamas. 6:40pm- While speaking with Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) declined to answer whether the Iowa caucus is “do or die” for his presidential campaign. 6:50pm- During Monday's press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre was asked if the Florida Democrat Party cancelling their presidential primary amounted to “voter suppression.” Unsurprisingly, Jean Pierre refused to answer.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4: Zach Jewell of The Daily Wire writes: “The Biden administration is pushing countries to ‘accelerate' their climate action and spending $3 billion in taxpayer dollars as a pledge to climate and ‘gender equity' funds, the White House announced Saturday… Buried deep in the White House fact sheet are commitments to advancing ‘gender equity amid climate change,' which include an additional $449 million for new programs such as Global Girls Creating Change, a program that seeks to give 900 girls and young women in 29 different countries ‘professional opportunities in the sustainable economy.'” You can read the full article here: https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-announces-3-billion-for-green-projects-overseas-including-nearly-500m-for-gender-equity During a speech at the 2023 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that coal fired power plants should not be permitted to exist anywhere in the world. While speaking in Dubai, Vice President Kamala Harris bizarrely said it was necessary to “revitalize the Palestinian Authority” in response to war between Israel and Hamas. While speaking with Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) declined to answer whether the Iowa caucus is “do or die” for his presidential campaign. During Monday's press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre was asked if the Florida Democrat Party cancelling their presidential primary amounted to “voter suppression.” Unsurprisingly, Jean Pierre refused to answer.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: According to a report from NBC4 New York, “[a]t least four gold bars tied to the FBI search of Sen. Robert Menendez's home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing the state's senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor records from a 2013 robbery case show. The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police to recover the gold bars stolen from him. In the 2013 robbery, Daibes reported $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater police records show. Police later caught four suspects with the stolen goods.” You can read the full report from Jonathan Dienst, Courtney Copenhagen, and Tom Winter here: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/gold-bars-featured-in-bob-menendez-bribe-case-linked-to-2013-robbery-records-show/4919801/ In a new advertisement, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)—who is now running for Mayor of Houston—accidentally provides her supporters with the wrong election date! A graphic featured in the commercial encourages voters to cast their ballots on or before December 7th—however, the election is actually taking place on December 9th. Brandon Drey of The Daily Wire writes: “A federal court on Monday halted the prison sentence for Douglas Mackey, who was convicted earlier this year of election interference for posting memes that mocked Hillary Clinton voters to cast their ballot via text during the 2016 presidential election. Mackey was accused of a ‘scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote' after a Twitter account he ran under the handle ‘Ricky Vaughn' posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.” You can read the full article here: https://www.dailywire.com/news/douglas-mackeys-meme-related-prison-sentence-halted-by-federal-court During a speech at the 2023 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that coal fired power plants should not be permitted to exist anywhere in the world. According to the audio, he may have emitted “natural gas” of his own making while on stage… On Sunday evening, a disturbing Pro-Palestinian protest in Philadelphia took place— consisting of anti-Semitic chants and the intentional targeting of a restaurant owned by an American-Israeli chef. Only one national news network reported on the story.

About 95% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported third-quarter earnings. So this week, we're having a roundtable conversation to discuss what we learned from the latest quarter and what the earnings reports tell us about where the market is and where it's heading. WSJ's Heard on the Street editor Spencer Jakab and reporter Justin Lahart join us to explore those ideas and more. Then, we're turning our attention to Dubai where the 28th annual United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP 28, is kicking off this Thursday. The conference is all about governments coming together to agree on policies to address climate change. WSJ climate finance reporter Amrith Ramkumar explains why this year's conference is welcoming oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and why you could see some big market moves for the next two weeks. We want to know what you've been wondering about the economy, companies, stocks, bonds, or markets in general. Send us a note or a voice-memo recording to takeontheweek@wsj.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 416-3489.  Further Reading Breaking Down the Best Earnings Quarter in a Year  Big Oil Producer Lines Up African Carbon Deals Ahead of Climate Talks  Nations Keep Upping Fossil-Fuel Production Despite Climate Pledge  For more coverage of the markets and your investments, head to WSJ.com. 

In a world rife with cascading crises – macro-economic fragmentation, retreating development, multilateralism under attack and of course the defining challenge of the age - climate change – maritime trade serves as a stabilizing anchor, holding fast against the turbulent currents of disruption. But it is changing. Russia's invasion of Ukraine shifted trade lanes – in terms of grain obviously, but it has increased the distances travelled by tankers as the Russian Federation sought new export markets for its cargo and Europe looked for alternative energy suppliers. The death of deglobalization may have been overstated, but it is changing. There are now shifts visible in the data towards various forms of de-risking or supply chain resilience measures. Goods continue to be produced through complex supply chains, but the extent of these chains may have plateaued, at least in the short run. Friend shoring, near-shoring, reshoring – however you label it, changes in trade lanes are afoot. The bigger consequences to all this will be a continued fragmentation of global trade norms and a long term challenge to the multilateralism that has defined the rules based order that oversaw globalised trade to this point. A rise in protectionist policy and regional bloc trade facilitation agreements promises increased fragmentation, uncertainty and complexities. As with watch with well founded fear at the events happening in the middle east this week, it is easy enough to see where the tipping points of immediate change lie, But the longer term developments are more complex and slower to show themselves. In this week's podcast we start a conversation around these theses with two experts who offer a compelling view on the challenges ahead. The first is an old friend of the Podcast - Jan Hoffmann, Head of the Trade Logistics Branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. And he is joined this week by Shamika Sirimanne, who leads UNCTAD's trade logistics programme.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister U Moe Zaw Oo's experience statement on the United Nations Conference.This item belongs to: audio/opensource_audio.This item has files of the following types: Archive BitTorrent, Item Tile, Metadata, PNG, Spectrogram, VBR MP3

Fourteen Australians representing the disability community headed to New York City with the Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth attending the 16th Session of the United Nations Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ahead of the event held at the United Nations Headquarters from 13 to 15 June 2023 Dylan Alcott and Angus O'Loughlin spoke with Amanda to talk about its significance and it's involvement with delegations from countries that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Amanda also answers your hard hitting questions sent in to us: Why did Amanda decide to take on a portfolio including disability Worrying about the next generations disability employment opportunities Disability support pensions mean testing and applications Watch our reaction to this episode on our YouTube where this episode is fully captioned: https://youtu.be/Pf6oAIGJDLQ Join the 10,000+ legends on Instagram: @ListenABLE_ Podcast https://www.instagram.com/listenable_podcast/ Share our guests stories on our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/ListenablePodcast Grab our first merch release at our website From Your Pocket https://fromyourpocket.com.au/work/listenable/merchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day, June 26th, in legal history, the Statute of the International Court of Justice was signed, establishing the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The history of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) can be traced back to its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was established under the League of Nations in accordance with Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Council of the League of Nations was responsible for developing the idea of the PCIJ and formed an Advisory Committee of Jurists in 1920 to prepare a report on its establishment. A draft scheme was subsequently presented to the League's Assembly and was unanimously adopted as the Statute of the PCIJ in 1920.While the PCIJ operated independently from the League of Nations, it played a crucial role in resolving contentious cases and providing advisory opinions from 1922 to 1940. In 1946, the ICJ was established with its own Statute, building upon the foundations of the PCIJ's Statute. This process involved redrafting the statute with adjustments based on historical experience. The United Nations Committee of Jurists and the Fourth Committee of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) in San Francisco in 1945 were responsible for finalizing the ICJ Statute.One significant innovation introduced by the ICJ Statute was its close relationship with the United Nations Charter, which provided a structural interrelationship between the ICJ and the broader framework of the United Nations. Significantly, the ICJ defines its role in the judicial settlement of international disputes, as the judicial organ of the legal order of the international community as a whole, and not only of the contending parties appearing before it.Here is kind of a mini-column Tuesday, on a Monday. I wrote in the Week in Insights for Bloomberg on a recent study that had some interesting implications for where the IRS should be directing its influx of capital under the Inflation Reduction Act.Recent research from Harvard University reveals that auditing high-income individuals yields a higher return, with a $1 investment in audits of the top 10% income bracket resulting in a $12 return, compared to $5 for those below the median income. These findings hopefully have policy implications for the IRS and will impact tax practitioners and taxpayers.Week in Insights: Harvard Study Shows Auditing the Rich Pays OffThe US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Coinbase Global Inc., affirming the company's ability to direct customer and employee disputes into arbitration. The decision, with a 5-4 vote, states that lawsuits filed in federal court must be paused while the defendant pursues an appeal to send the case to arbitration. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, argued that allowing district courts to proceed with pre-trial and trial proceedings during an ongoing appeal would undermine the advantages of arbitration. Business groups supported Coinbase, claiming that permitting litigation to continue would impose unnecessary costs, while consumer advocates argued that judges should have discretion in deciding which claims can proceed during an appeal. The case involved claims against Coinbase by Abraham Bielski regarding losses due to a scammer and allegations of inadequate disclosure in a Dogecoin sweepstakes. The ruling reinforces the power of companies to enforce arbitration clauses and the benefits associated with arbitration agreements in various industries, including the cryptocurrency sector.Coinbase Wins at Supreme Court as Ruling Backs Arbitration (1)U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested a delay in the start of former President Donald Trump's trial on charges of willful retention of classified government records and obstruction of justice. Smith asked the federal judge to push the trial start date from August 14 to December 11, citing the need for reasonable time for effective preparation. Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal court in Miami. The trial will adhere to the Classified Information Procedures Act, which governs the handling and disclosure of classified evidence. Smith stated that the delay is necessary to allow Trump's lawyers to obtain security clearances and review classified documents. While Trump's lawyers do not oppose scrapping the August 14 start date, they are expected to file a motion opposing the proposed schedule.US special counsel seeks delay to start of Trump documents trial until December | ReutersU.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied allegations made by an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower that the investigation into Hunter Biden's tax affairs was impeded by the Justice Department. Garland stated that U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by former President Trump, had complete authority to make charging decisions on his own regarding Hunter Biden's case. Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to pay income taxes. The charges were revealed in a court filing by Weiss's office, and Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to the charges. Republicans have criticized the plea deal, claiming it is a lenient arrangement. A transcript of an interview with an IRS agent involved in the probe, Gary Shapley, was released, alleging that the Justice Department delayed the case. Shapley claimed that Weiss sought permission to bring charges from anywhere in the country but was denied by Garland. Garland denied the claim, stating that Weiss never made such a request, and emphasized that Weiss had more authority than a special counsel. Hunter Biden's attorney also defended the thoroughness of the investigation.U.S. attorney general denies allegations that Hunter Biden tax probe was stymied | ReutersThe U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals for allegedly trafficking the chemicals used to produce fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has contributed to the opioid crisis in the United States. This marks the first time the U.S. has sought to prosecute Chinese companies involved in manufacturing precursor chemicals for fentanyl. China's foreign ministry responded by urging the U.S. to stop using fentanyl-related pretexts to sanction and prosecute Chinese entities, demanding the release of those "illegally arrested." The move comes after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, where he emphasized the need for Chinese cooperation to address the fentanyl trade. The indicted companies are accused of supplying precursor chemicals to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, which has flooded the U.S. with fentanyl. The cases aim to disrupt the fentanyl supply chain and highlight the unique threat posed by the synthetic drug. In addition, Blinken announced plans to convene a virtual ministerial meeting to establish a Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats.US files first-ever charges against Chinese fentanyl manufacturers | Reuters Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Transcript with some hyperlinksEric Topol (00:00):Hello, Eric Topol here. And what a privilege to have as my guest Al Gore, as we discuss things that are considered existential threats. And that includes not just climate change but also recently the concern about A.I. No one has done more on the planet to bring to the fore the concerns about climate change. And many people think that the 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth, was the beginning, but it goes way back into the 1980s. So, Al it's really great to have you put in perspective. Here we are with the what's going on in Canada with more than 12 million acres of forest fires that are obviously affecting us greatly, no less the surface temperature of the oceans. And so many other signs of this climate change that you had warned us about decades ago are now accelerating. So maybe we could start off out, where are we with climate change and the climate reality?The Good News on Climate ChangeAl Gore (01:00):Oh, well, first of all, thank you so much for inviting me to be on your podcast again, Eric. It's always a pleasure and especially because you're the host and we, we have very interesting conversations that aren't on the podcast. So, , I'm looking forward to this one. So, to start with climate you know, the old cliche, there's good news and bad news. Unfortunately, there's an abundance of bad news but there's also an awful lot of good news. Let me start with that first and then turn to the more worrying trends. We have seen the passage in the US last August of the largest and most effective best funded climate legislation passed by any nation in all of history. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act is an extraordinary piece of legislation.(01:55): It's billed as allocating $369 billion to climate solutions. But actually, the heavy lifting in that legislation is done by tax credits, most of which are open-ended and uncapped, and a few without any time limits, most a 10-year duration. And the enthusiastic response to the legislation after President Biden signed it has now made it clear that that early estimate of 369 billion is a low-ball estimate, because Goldman Sachs, for example, is predicting that it will end up allocating 1.2 trillion to climate solutions. A lot of other investors and others using economic models are estimating more than a trillion. So, it's really a fantastic piece of legislation and other nations are beginning to react and respond and copy it. One month after that law was passed the voters of Australia threw out their climate denying government and replaced it with a climate-friendly government, which immediately then set about passing legislation that adopts the same goals as the US IRA and the Australian context.(03:19):And they stopped the biggest new coal mine there. And anyway, one month after that, in October, the voters of Brazil threw out their former president often called the “Trump of the Tropics” and replaced him with a new president, a former president who's a new president, who has pledged to protect the Amazon and the European Union in responding to the evil, evil and cruel invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And the attempted blackmail of nations in Europe, dependent on Russian gas and oil responded not by bending their knee to Vladimir Putin, but by saying, wait a minute, this makes renewable energy, freedom, energy. And so they accelerated their transition. And so these are all excellent signs and qualifies as good news. The other good news is not all that new, but it's still continuing to improve.(04:28):And that is the astonishing reductions in cost for electricity produced by solar and wind, and the reductions in cost for energy storage, principally in batteries and electric vehicles and a hundred other less well known technologies that are extremely important. We're in the midst of early stages of a sustainability revolution that has the magnitude of the industrial revolution, coupled with the speed of the digital revolution. And we're seeing it all over the place. It's really quite heartening. One quick example last, the, the biggest single source of global warming pollution is the generation of electricity with gas and coal. Well, last year, if you look at all the new electricity generation capacity installed worldwide 90% of it was renewable. In India, 93% was solar and wind. And India's pledged not to give permits for any new coal burning plants for at least five years, which means never, probably because this cost reduction curve, as I mentioned, is still continuing downward electric vehicles, we're now seeing that the purchases have reached 15% of the market globally.(05:56):Norway's already at 50%. They've actually outlawed the sale of any new internal combustion engines. And indeed, many national and even municipal and state jurisdictions have prospectively served notice that they, you won't be able to buy them after a certain day, 2030,  in many cases and the auto companies and truck and bus companies have long since diverted their research money all their R & D is going into EVs now. And that's the second largest source of global warming pollution. I could go through the others, but I want, I'll just tell you that there is a lot of good news.And the Bad NewsNow, the bad news is we're still seeing the crisis get worse, faster than we're deploying all of these solutions. And, the inertia in our political and economic systems is partly a direct result of huge amounts of lobbying and campaign contributions and the century old net of political and economic influence built up by the fossil fuel industry.(07:18):And they're opposing every single solution at the state level, the local level, the national level, the international level. Now, this COP 28 [the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference] coming up at the end of the year in the United Arab Emirates is actually chaired by an oil and gas company CEO-- It's preposterous. And they already have in the last two COPS, more lobbyists registered as participants than all than the five or six largest national delegations combined. And we're seeing them really oppose this change. And meanwhile, the manifestations of the crisis are steadily worsening. You mentioned the fires in Canada that are predicted to burn all summer long. And I was in New York City last week, and you, you know, from the news stories it, it was horrific. I got there the day after the worst day, oh my God.(08:21):But I saw and heard from people just the tremendous problems that people have. It's also going on in Siberia, by the way, and these places that are typically beyond the reach of TV crews and networks that don't capture our attention unless something happens to blow the smoke to where we live. And that's what's happened here. But there are many other extremely worrying manifestations that aren't getting much attention. I do think we're going to solve this, Eric. I'm very optimistic, but the question is whether we will solve it in time. We are what's the right way to say this? We're tiptoeing through a minefield with tripwires and toward the edge of a cliff. I don't want to torture the metaphor, but actually there are several extremely dangerous threats to ecological systems that are in a state of balance now, and are being pushed out of their equilibrium state into a different format.(09:35):The ocean currents--we're already seeing it with the jet stream in the northern hemisphere. You may have seen on the weather maps. They're now using these a lot where it's getting loopier and more disorganized. That's what the last few winners has, has pulled these big loops, have pulled arctic air down into areas far south in the US and in other regions, by the way. And it's making a lot of the extreme events worse. Now, we're entering an El Nino phase in the Pacific Ocean comes around every so often, and this one is predicted to be a strong one, and that's going to accentuate the temperature increase. You know, it was [recently] 110 degrees last week in Puerto Rico, 111 degrees in several countries in Southeast Asia.(10:31):Last summer, China had a heat wave that the historians say about, which the historians say there's nothing even minimally comparable in all prior known, and the length, the extent, the duration, the intensity. And we saw monsoons lead to much of Pakistan underwater for an extended period of time. I could go on, but the net and balance out the good news and the bad news we are gaining momentum. And soon we are going to be gaining on the crisis itself and start deploying solutions faster than it's getting worse. So I remain optimistic, and I always remind people, if you doubt we have the political will to see this through, remember that political will is itself a renewable resource.The Intersection of A.I. and Climate ChangeEric Topol (11:27):Yeah, that's a great optimistic point, and we sure appreciate that, because it's pretty scary to see these trends that you reviewed. Now, as you know recently there was a large group of AI scientists this one led by Sam Altman of OpenAI, who put out a statement, a one-sentence statement, and it said, “Mitigating the risk of distinction from ai, which you and are enthusiastic about, should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.” Well, obviously, also climate change. So how do you see the AI intersection of climate change? Because as you well know, GPT-4, having pre-trained with some 30,000 graphic processing units [GPUs], the issues about consumption of energy carbon emissions, the need for water cooling, is AI going to make this situation worse, or will it make it better?Al Gore (12:33):Well, yeah. You know, I understand. Well, both would be my answer. And we don't have enough data yet to really know for sure which way it will tip. Maybe we'll talk about the existential risks from generative AI. As this conversation continues, there are many who have spoken up and said, well, wait a minute, before we focus on that, we need to look at the risks that are right, staring us right in the face. I mean, the use of these AI driven algorithms, not necessarily generative AI, but the AI-driven algorithms in social media are causing tremendous harm right now. You've heard about the rabbit holes that people get drawn down into on the internet. That's because of the AI-driven algorithms and the tracking of confidential information about what people are looking at and what they're interested in.(13:40):And these are rabbit holes are ,a little bit not to shift metaphors, a little bit like pitcher plants in that they have slippery slides and, oh, and, you know, what's at the bottom of the rabbit hole? That's where the echo chamber is. And when you spend long enough in the echo chamber, then those who are feeding the information to you weaponize a new form of AI, not artificial intelligence, artificial insanity. And, and we see it all over the place where people are utterly convinced of completely ridiculous and provably false conclusions and, and motivated to go out and act in the real world. On that basis we, we see the fakes and the concerns about video and audio deep fakes, and how that's going to have an impact on us and, and all manner of other concerns that need to need to be addressed.(14:43):But the existential threat is one that I do want to come back to. But, turning to your specific focus on whether it is going help or hurt or both where climate is concerned, I have co-founded a coalition called Climate TRACE that uses AI in an extremely effective, beneficial way. Trace stands for tracking real-time atmosphere, carbon emissions, and we have a coalition of AI firms, NGOs, university groups and the whole coalition works together to identify with AI, the point source of every single significant stream of emissions of global warm inclusion everywhere on the planet. We released it at the last United Nations Conference, the one that was held in Egypt last year. The top 72,000 emission point sources around the world this fall; we will release the top 70 million emission sources.(15:54): We also have every agricultural field in the world down to a 10 meter by 10 meter resolution. We have all, every single power plant, all the steel mills, every large ship, every large plane, most every well, we have all of the significant greenhouse gas emissions that wouldn't have not, that would not have been possible without ai. Now, this is not generative AI. We have used generative ai --not ChatGPT--we tried that, but there are others that are actually more proficient in the views of our team members at writing code. It has saved us time and enhanced our productivity in writing code. So that's one example where AI has been a big help. And we see it in modeling, and we see it in the preparation for adaptation and in other ways. Now, the downside is, you said in your introductory phrasing that the energy requirements and the emissions are just enormous because it is an extremely energy intensive exercise.(17:09): And you have to have the GPUs as well as the energy. So it's you could call it “oligopogenic”-- that may not be a word. It may be a hallucination, like GPT is famous for, but what I mean is it, it does tend to favor a very small number, a very wealthy, very powerful, very large companies. Basically, Google and Microsoft are driving the, the rest of the world to try to desperately catch up. You know, the CEO of Microsoft. They stole a march on Google with the release of ChatGPT and then that fascinated people and the pickup and use of GPT unbelievable is just, it, it's there's been nothing like it in.(18:19):Previous technological history. The CEO said that he wanted to make call Google out and make him dance. Well you know, Peggy Noonan said in one of her columns, that's not a responsible way for the CEO of such a company to talk. I, I like him, and I'm not really taking a poke at him, insofar as I'm making the point that there're really two companies, and the internal dynamic between the two is driving this frenzy of investment and activity, and the underlying platform, the large language models, they're all almost a commodity now. They're all over the place and have been for a while. But the need for the GPUs, the need for the energy consumption that's limiting the cutting edge developments to these two companies. For now, China doesn't trust it because they don't trust the enhanced political influence.(19:22):It might give those using it or the enhanced insight. And there are others that will try to find a way to use it, of course. But the, the emissions itself are extremely harmful and the use of generative AI in the hands of irresponsible actors. And, unfortunately, we're human beings and we have a lot of irresponsible actors around this, around this country, around the world. And they could use that to really put climate disinformation into high gear. They, they can use it in a variety of ways to further enhance the disruption, the disruptive tactics they've used in the past.Eric Topol (20:15):Yeah. Well, that's what I wanted to get into more on this. We have, I think, you know, if you want to put an existential risk at the highest level, maybe if you were assign 10 to climate change and you've brought up the fact that the large language models generative AI will make worse, the things we've already seen, the, the hacking of democracy and all the fake stuff that's the conspiracy theories that it will reinforce. And the question is, where are you, where did you place the whole generative AI era that we've now entered in if you were to weigh it against existential threat, just other, one other thing. You've, you undoubtedly, because you read more than anyone I know you're a true scholar, and you've read these doomsayer essays about hacking a democracy and(21:11): the end of the world, and some of the notable leaders in AI like Geoffrey Hinton to leave Google. And so we have, on the one hand some people saying this is a real threat to the world. And then we have Marc Andreesen who wrote, “Why AI Will Save the World” last week , a long read on this. So where do you, where do you see the existential threat of now that AI has gone into high gear, as you noted, more than a billion unique users of ChatGPT within 90 days, which is unprecedented. I mean, withAl Gore (21:45):All cap, nothing else is even close in history. Yeah,Where are we with Artificial General Intelligence?Eric Topol (21:48):Yeah. So, do you see that this has been exaggerated, the risk of generative AI? Or how do you compare it to the climate change crisis?Al Gore (22:01):Well it's a great question, Eric. And of course lots of people we know are breaking their brains trying to answer that question. I think we need a little more experience with it because our understanding is going to develop as we have more experience. But at the same time, we're trying to catch up in our basic understanding of what the heck's going on with these things. And they don't actually know it's important to note they don't know how it's doing what it's doing. And I'll, I'll circle back to that. But while we're trying to figure it out, it's continuing to advance at warp speed. GPT-4 in the cleverly titled, the provocatively titled, research paper “Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence” that Microsoft put out is already demonstrating capacities that are shockingly comparable to human capacity is the way they put it.(23:13):This less than a year after Google fired a young researcher named Blake Lemoine who said that he thought theirs had become sentient. And they fired him right away. These multiple co-authors of this paper from Microsoft weren't fired. They're in charge of the thing, and they're basically saying close to what the guy at Google said, who got fired.I think that if you listen to Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of generative AI, and there's so many, many parents of generative AI. But what caused him to change his mind, in his words, were when he realized that it is very likely to become much smarter than we are, than the smartest human beings ever are. And coupling that level of superintelligence, the phrase some have used with access to all of the knowledge that humanity has ever compiled means there is an unpredictable unquantifiable risk that we might no longer be the apex lifeform on this planet.(24:47):And that generative AI might be used that in ways that would be threatening to us. I think we need more experience with it in before we decide, okay, that's it. We not going to unplug all these dang things and bust them up with sledgehammers. That's not going to happen. Cause there's so many different entities pursuing it. But, you know, I placed this the context of one of the themes in that runs through the history of science, Eric. And that is, as we have seen in the past, new discoveries that have challenged our human understanding of our place in creation. For example, when Galileo said, the Earth's not the center of the universe, it's not the center of the solar system, the church said ah, off to prison with you, they put him on trial.(25:58):because that challenge our prime place in what we had thought was God's design. Then Darwin, of course, placed us solidly in the animal kingdom, descended from, from primates and apes and monkeys. And of course, that struggle is still, I used to represent Dayton, Tennessee and the United States House of Representatives where, where the, the Scopes Trial took place, the so-called monkey trial. And there have been a succession of other similar blows to the collective ego of humanity. We used to assume confidently that the earth was probably the only place in the whole universe that life where life emerged. And now the common assumption is it's ubiquitous throughout the universe and maybe in advanced forms and lots and lots of places. And by the way, the universe isn't the only universe they tell us.(26:55):Now, the emerging better view is that we're in a multiverse, and that's all above my pay grade. But within that, within that continuum of successive blows to the collective ego of humanity, here comes an assertion that something other than a human being may be conscious. And our immediate reaction, as it, as our predecessors' reactions were with Galileo and Darwin, et cetera, nah, that can't be we're special. No, it can't be. We're the only ones. Well maybe not. They are edging closer and closer to a point where scientists and engineers are likely to say, yep, it is conscious. Maybe it won't happen. I kind of think it is already beginning to happen. I think there's an explanation for it, but we're going to have to catch up to that explanation. And we're going have to build this airplane of regulation and safeguards while we taxi it out to the runway.Can AI Help Solve the Climate Crisis?Eric Topol (28:06):Well, you know, I share that view. You know, I don't think that continuing to say this is just a stochastic parrot is where we're at right now. It's a form of intelligence from machines that we haven't seen previously. And as you've really zoomed in on this is the big debate about the level of understanding the so-called “world model.” And, you know, this is something that is only going to get more capable over time. And that gets me to kind of close the loop on our discussion. Do you foresee that we could get to a point where our machine help would come up with new solutions? I mean, as you've summarized, you have phenomenal AI tracking of climate change, but could you foresee that there are potential solutions that we haven't thought of, that, that generative AI could help us as humans to solve the climate crisis?Al Gore (29:05):Yeah, I think that's very likely.  You know, one of the new professions that's just emerged as a, a prompt engineer—we'll have to have people trained in prompting these large language models in a way that gets us to the kinds of exchanges you're talking about. But we've, even before generative AI arrived, we have had multiple examples of artificial intelligence solving problems that we humans have not been able to solve. One example that I wrote about several years ago was the long-term effort to try to decode the genetics of a little thing called the planarian worm. It's been of extreme interest because it can regenerate every part of its body. And in, in such an efficient way they've been trying to understand it.(30:07):So a group of scientists took all of the raw data from all of the failed experiments collected during all of the failed experiments to try to solve that problem, fed 'em into an AI. And the AI said, okay, here's the answer. And it was credited. The AI agent was credited as one of the co-authors of the resulting study. We've had we've had problems in fluid dynamics solved by artificial intelligence that were impenetrable to us. So there's no question in my mind that some of the solutions that we're looking for, for the climate crisis will be found with the assistance of generative AI. I'm certain of that.Eric Topol (30:53):Well, that adds to the optimism that we want to close up with because we need that in the face of what we're seeing that's palpable every day regarding climate change. And, you know, I think this discussion, Al,  I could spend the whole day with you because it's so stimulating and your ability to cite history, as well as current and future perspective is, for me, unparalleled. So, I really enjoyed this discussion with you, and I hope we'll have another one real soon, because this generative AI era is zooming, like I've never seen ChatGPT in November, GPT-4 in March, and you know what's next here.Al Gore (31:35):So GPT-5 is coming in December, as you said. And, before you conclude, Eric, let, let me just give back to you my admiration for the work that you've been doing on the applications of generative AI in healthcare and the development of even better healthcare technologies. You're the leading exponent of this whole field of knowledge now. And you know, you helped us get through the, our effort to understand the pandemic and all the twists and turns and all of that. And now you're taking the lead on the application of AI in healthcare, and thank you very much. I speak for a lot of people in saying that.Eric Topol(32:19):Well, that's really kind to you. That's, that's where my interest was before the pandemic. And now the good part is to be able to get back to it full force. But I do think, unlike the overall existential concerns regarding AI and the large language models of AI, the net benefit for healthcare is just much more obvious. Yes, there are concerns, of course, regarding patient prompts and getting inaccurate responses. However, what it can do for the, the medical community and for patient autonomy is, is really quite extraordinary. So, in that regard another good way to, to sum up our, our discussion here because that's a very, I'm very sanguine about, as we get better about implementing AI in healthcare, it'll make a big difference particularly now with this multimodal AI that brings in images, the records, you all the data that voice, you know, the ambient voice of office visits, as well as even bedside rounds. It's really quite exciting. And I know we're going be talking about that some more in the months ahead. So thank you so much. You've, you've brightened up this day because all I keep seeing are these apocalyptic photos of New York and what's going on out there, graphs of the oceans sea surface temperature. And I'm thinking, oh my, how we keep losing ground on what you told us about for decades. And I like hearing that you think these solutions are and be increasingly to catch up to that. So thank you.Al Gore (33:59):Thank you, Eric. Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe

For 70+ years, development economists have been touting the idea that if lesser developed countries trade and invest collaboratively, it would serve as a pathway out of poverty. But today, the notion of so-called South-South cooperation is facing unprecedented challenges as developing countries confront a series of converging economic, health, and geopolitical crises.But two economists at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) contend that at the dawn of another Great Power rivalry and massive economic uncertainty, Global South countries working together is now more important than ever.Richard Kozul-Wright, director of UNCTAD's globalization and development strategies division, and Alex Izurieta, head of the South-South cooperation unit at UNCTAD, join Eric & Cobus intra-Global South trade provides a critical safety net for some of the world's poorest countries.JOIN THE DISCUSSION:Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olanderFacebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectYouTube: www.youtube.com/ChinaAfricaProjectFOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChineعربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfrJOIN US ON PATREON!Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!www.patreon.com/chinaafricaprojectSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For Earth Day, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley joins host Monique Aiken to reflect on her four decades working in finance and on environmental and human rights issues. Dillon-Ridgley is the chair of the board of the Intentional Endowments Network, and has served on 23 US delegations to the UN, including the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Plus, Monique has the headlines. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/impact-alpha/message

For Earth Day, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley joins host Monique Aiken to reflect on her four decades working in finance and on environmental and human rights issues. Dillon-Ridgley is the chair of the board of the Intentional Endowments Network, and has served on 23 US delegations to the UN, including the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Plus, Monique has the headlines. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/impact-alpha-briefing/message

During my trip to the global climate talks in Glasgow in 2021, I had a most serendipitous encounter. I was there as a member of Boston College’s first delegation to the United Nations Conference of the Parties (“COP”), and on day three, I bumped into the science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, whose novel, The … Continue reading "Episode #33: Kim Stanley Robinson on COP26"

Hundreds of young Christians took part in a national relay walk to COP26 to protest about climate change.   Members of the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) took it in turns to walk from St Ives in Cornwall, and Swansea in Wales, to Glasgow, for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) in October 2021.   The Church of England is committed to being carbon neutral by 2030, and is supporting initiatives such as Eco-Churches, lobbying Parliament, and the relay walk   Bill Shaw reports….

Meet the women who helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Click to join my mailing listIf you would like to support the podcast, you and Buy Me a CoffeeWrite a review on Podchaser, Apple or Spotify.The History Detective Season 1 & 2 Album is  now available on Spotify and all of your music streaming services.Accompanying teaching resources for season 1-4 episodes can be found on my Amped Up Learning Store or on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.Listen to As the Money Burns on SpotifyContact: Twitter @HistoryDetect, Instagram @HistoryDetective9, email  historydetective9@gmail.comHistory Detective WebsiteAll  music written and performed by Kelly Chase.

Rémy Rioux is chief executive officer of the French Development Agency, or AFD. But before that, in 2015, he worked as chief negotiator on the finance track of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate. Since then the United Nations Conference of the Parties has grown into a behemoth, with COP 27 in Egypt attracting 40,000 people. Devex sat down with Rioux on the sidelines of COP 27 to hear his thoughts on how the summit has changed since 2015 — and if it's become an opportunity for greenwashing. In this wide-ranging interview, Rioux also discussed the prospects of the AFD providing loss and damage financing and supporting nuclear energy programs through its aid program, and whether human rights in Egypt were helped or hindered by the summit.

Check out podcast episodes a week early here! - https://www.peopleonplanes.com/ Find all you need to know about Mitzi Perdue here! - www.mitziperdue.com Mitzi's purpose in life is to encourage people to be all they can be. She believes that inspiration is the best gift one person can give another because inspiration provides people with energy and direction. She wrote Relentless with the goal of sharing Mark Victor Hansen's astonishingly wise tips for growth and happiness, tips that can help people live fuller, more satisfying lives. Mitzi is a businesswoman, author, and a master story teller. She holds degrees from Harvard University and George Washington University, is a past president of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women and was one of the U.S. Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi. She currently writes for the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents and hosts EarthX TV's show, The Pen and the Planet. Most recently, she's authored Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business and Life Lessons from Frank Perdue. The book made #5 on Amazon's Business Biographies, out of a field of 20,000. She's also the author of, I Didn't Bargain for This, her story of growing up as a hotel heiress. A woman of many talents, she also programmed a computer app, B Healthy U, designed to help people track the interactions of lifestyle factors that influence their energy, sleep, hunger, mood, and ability to handle stress. In addition to being a programmer and software developer, Mitzi is also an artist and designer of EveningEggs™ handbags. In addition, Mitzi the author of more than 1800 newspaper and magazine articles on family businesses, food, agriculture, the environment, philanthropy, biotechnology, genetic engineering, and women's health. She was a syndicated columnist for 22 years, and her weekly environmental columns were distributed first by California's Capitol News and later, by Scripps Howard News Service, to roughly 420 newspapers. For two years she was a Commissioner on the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Mitzi also produced and hosted more than 400 half hour interview shows, Mitzi's Country Magazine on KXTV, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, California. In addition, she hosted and produced more than 300 editions of Mitzi's Country Comments, which was syndicated to 76 stations. Her radio series, Tips from the Farmer to You, was broadcast weekly for two years on the Coast to Coast Radio Network.

For decades, scientists and activists have called for action to slow the pace of global warming. The political process has struggled and largely failed to keep up with the growing climate crisis. But through annual summits known as the United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP, countries have finally started to commit to reducing their emissions. At last year's climate summit, nations that make up about two thirds of the global economy committed to reducing emissions enough to try to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees celsius.  At this year's 27th COP in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, central questions will focus on how to pay for climate adaptation and mitigation. And, since the world's 20 biggest economies are responsible for 80% of all climate disrupting emissions, how much money do those nations owe poorer countries suffering from a problem they didn't create? Guests: Jonathan Pershing, Former Special Envoy for Climate Change, U.S. Department of State Omnia El Omrani, COP 27 Youth Envoy Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, Special Representative of the COP27 President Contributing Producer: Rabiya Jaffery For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, scientists and activists have called for action to slow the pace of global warming. The political process has struggled and largely failed to keep up with the growing climate crisis. But through annual summits known as the United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP, countries have finally started to commit to reducing their emissions. At last year's climate summit, nations that make up about two thirds of the global economy committed to reducing emissions enough to try to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees celsius.  At this year's 27th COP in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, central questions will focus on how to pay for climate adaptation and mitigation. And, since the world's 20 biggest economies are responsible for 80% of all climate disrupting emissions, how much money do those nations owe poorer countries suffering from a problem they didn't create? Guests: Jonathan Pershing, Former Special Envoy for Climate Change, U.S. Department of State Omnia El Omrani, COP 27 Youth Envoy Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, Special Representative of the COP27 President Contributing Producer: Rabiya Jaffery For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Utah Valley University is hosting the United Nations conference "Why it Matters" where hundreds of local and global leaders as well as academics and students are gathering to discuss everything from poverty to education to clean energy. Chief International Officer for Utah Valley University Baldomero Lago explains how this partnership with the UN came about and what's happening at the conference.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam breaks down the biggest headlines of the day. Sam begins by tackling the neck-and-neck midterm polling in Wisconsin and Nevada, Peter Thiel shifting his funding from JD Vance back to Blake Masters, and Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker both giving their opponents a boost in Pennsylvania and Georgia, respectively. He also dives into the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development making a statement against the US' crackdown on labor via Federal interest rate hikes, the still-hazy information around the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and Pelosi officially sinking the stock trading ban. Marco Rubio finds himself in a real Florida-politician moment as he has to justify federal funds for disaster relief when he's voted against such funds going anywhere else, Herschel Walker's past funding of abortions comes to the fore as his son, Christian, finally speaks out against the years of abuse under Herschel's reign as family patriarch. Similarly, Mila speaks out against recent statements made by one Saul Seder, and Sam and the crew dive deep into updates on unionization efforts including an Amazon work stoppage in Staten Island, the successful organizing effort at SFO (San Francisco/Oakland) airport, and the ongoing Graduate Union effort at Clark University in Worcester. And in the Fun Half: Sam dives a little deeper into the UNCTD's statement on the Fed hiking interest rates, the GOP candidate for Governor of Minnesota speaks out about Furries totally combining two different kinds of grooming, and John from San Antonio comes for Dave Weigel and Sam as he explores the confusing polling around the midterms. Wade from Minneapolis discusses the new CIA Podcast, the crew dives into the London climate protests and another abortion-ban horror story coming out of Arizona, before Vaugn from DC gives some updates on Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition, Shahab from Nashville discusses US reporting on Iran and the greater impacts of sanctions, and Ben from Worcester talks WooSox, plus, your calls and IMs! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: Established Titles: Thanks to Established Titles for sponsoring today's video. Go to https://establishedtitles.com/MAJORITY to get an additional 10% off on any purchase with code MAJORITY fast growing trees: Making your house feel like home - indoors and out - can improve your day to day life — That's why we recommend FastGrowingTrees.com. The experts at Fast Growing Trees curate thousands of plants so you can find the perfect fit for your specific climate, location, and needs. Go to https://fastgrowingtrees.com/MAJORITY right now, and you'll get FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF your entire order NOW through OCTOBER 15TH. Nutrafol: You don't have to choose between better hair growth and your health. There's a holistic solution for men that promotes both healthier hair and whole-body wellness: Nutrafol. Nutrafol is the #1 dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement, clinically shown to improve your hair growth, thickness, and visible scalp coverage. You can grow thicker, healthier hair AND support our show by going to https://nutrafol.com/men/ and entering the promo code MAJORITY to save fifteen dollars off your first month's subscription. This is their best offer ANYWHERE and it is only available to U S customers for a limited time. Plus, FREE shipping on EVERY order. Get FIFTEEN DOLLARS OFF at https://nutrafol.com/men/ promo code MAJORITY.  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ Check out Just Stop Oil! here: https://juststopoil.org/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Tuesday, October 4, 2022 Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free 1/ The United Nations warned that the world is “on the edge of a recession.” In a new report, the United Nations Conference on Trade Development said that tightening monetary policy meant to fight inflation by central banks in the U.S., Europe, an... Visit WTF Just Happened Today? for more news and headlines, brought to you by Matt Kiser. The WTFJHT Podcast is narrated and produced by Joe Amditis.

In 1944, 44 nations came together to create a set of economic reforms designed to promote economic stability and a lasting peace. Almost 80 years later, this order has given way to a runaway financial sector that has destabilized the world economy with repeated financial crises and asset bubbles, and increasing hazards created by climate change.  In this episode, Kevin Gallagher of Boston University's Global Development Policy Center and Richard Kozul-Wright of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development discuss their new book, The Case for a New Bretton Woods, which lays the groundwork for moving the global economy away from ever-increasing levels of financialization and instability to one that promotes global prosperity and a stable climate. You can find their book here: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Case+for+a+New+Bretton+Woods-p-9781509546541 You can find additional commentary on this episode and other issues of the day by signing up for YDHTY's email newsletter here: www.ydhty.com/news

Agatha Christie's Herecule Poirot - Death in The Golden Gate(AFRTS) From-1945 Stars-Harold Huber This story of detective fiction finds Herecule Poirot in the time of San Francisco at the time of the United Nations Conference. 

Despite monitoring multiple global crises, Rebeca Grynspan has never lost her faith in the power of change. As Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), she is assessing the impact of the war in Ukraine on cash-strapped countries still reeling from the pandemic. “We don't have to be naive, but we have to believe in change, because change has happened. And we can make it happen again.” A trio of crises – climate change, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine – are setting global development by decades, with vulnerable countries worst affected by global food and energy shortages. In this episode, Rebeca Grynspan reflects on these setbacks, their disproportionate impact on women, and why the world can never give up on the promise of development.

 During the pandemic, the World Health Organisation and governments took a back seat and power was centred on corporate interests. Health was viewed not as a right or a necessity, but as a product to be marketed and sold. Even in the midst of a global health emergency, companies treated the ill and the vulnerable as consumers and vaccines as commodities, setting prices and production rates that maximise profit. How has this happened and what, if any, are the alternatives?   Harris Gleckman is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Sustainability and Governance at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the Director of Benchmark Environmental Consulting. He was previously Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He is here in conversation with Arun Kundnani, who is a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror.

The opener to Season 2 features young children in the lives of LanzaTech's team asking questions on climate change, biodiversity, sea level rise, and more, for responses by our CEO and expert Hunter Lovins. Held annually on June 5th, World Environment Day is the largest global platform for public outreach. This 2022 theme, “Only One Earth,” was the slogan for the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in 1972.

Today's guest is biologist and environmentalist, Dr. Roger Payne. In 1970 Dr Payne recorded “Songs of the Humpback Whale” which stands as the best-selling environmental album in history. This album and it's popularity crafted the “Save the Whales” movement which then led to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment ten-year global moratorium on commercial whaling, which was observed by all but a few nations. On this episode we talk about what launched Roger's passion for whales, how music has existed before humans, and trends within whales singing. We also talk about how creativity is the only way to reach the masses regarding the environment and climate change, and how the future looks very bleak without creative voices. You can submit your questions to Ben here: https://www.speakpipe.com/BenFolds And check out the YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ix6szTyjg3vmx1sIj-Vfw See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org· Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

“I mentioned before that one of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.Few are producers, all of us are consumers. So we all have to participate in how we produce, what we produce and that means from infrastructure for a city to the way that a road is designed or that a marketplace builds its operations. To do it in a responsible way, in a sustainable way, you need the contribution of all. I would say that it's one of the most difficult challenges that humanity has–addressing the urban problems. Basically, because you cannot change a city from one day to the other, but I think that the starting point has to be change the citizen. And being a citizen has a lot of implications because the moment you realize you are a citizen you also need to accept that you have to be active, that you have to be an agent of change. We cannot expect this city to change, if the citizens don't want to mobilize an agenda to push for something, to request changes, to participate. I think the word participation is absolutely key. And we find in Latin America and in all continents that very often we have governments that curtail the capacity of citizens to be active, that tell the population to wait for a change, to be passive, to let the government do their job. And that's absolutely wrong because government is the one that defines court, the game that the citizens are going to play. And that game is called defining the rules of the game and allowing the citizens to be active participants of change.” Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org · Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org· Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

“I mentioned before that one of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.Few are producers, all of us are consumers. So we all have to participate in how we produce, what we produce and that means from infrastructure for a city to the way that a road is designed or that a marketplace builds its operations. To do it in a responsible way, in a sustainable way, you need the contribution of all. I would say that it's one of the most difficult challenges that humanity has–addressing the urban problems. Basically, because you cannot change a city from one day to the other, but I think that the starting point has to be change the citizen. And being a citizen has a lot of implications because the moment you realize you are a citizen you also need to accept that you have to be active, that you have to be an agent of change. We cannot expect this city to change, if the citizens don't want to mobilize an agenda to push for something, to request changes, to participate. I think the word participation is absolutely key. And we find in Latin America and in all continents that very often we have governments that curtail the capacity of citizens to be active, that tell the population to wait for a change, to be passive, to let the government do their job. And that's absolutely wrong because government is the one that defines court, the game that the citizens are going to play. And that game is called defining the rules of the game and allowing the citizens to be active participants of change.” Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org · Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org· Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

“I mentioned before that one of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.Few are producers, all of us are consumers. So we all have to participate in how we produce, what we produce and that means from infrastructure for a city to the way that a road is designed or that a marketplace builds its operations. To do it in a responsible way, in a sustainable way, you need the contribution of all. I would say that it's one of the most difficult challenges that humanity has–addressing the urban problems. Basically, because you cannot change a city from one day to the other, but I think that the starting point has to be change the citizen. And being a citizen has a lot of implications because the moment you realize you are a citizen you also need to accept that you have to be active, that you have to be an agent of change. We cannot expect this city to change, if the citizens don't want to mobilize an agenda to push for something, to request changes, to participate. I think the word participation is absolutely key. And we find in Latin America and in all continents that very often we have governments that curtail the capacity of citizens to be active, that tell the population to wait for a change, to be passive, to let the government do their job. And that's absolutely wrong because government is the one that defines court, the game that the citizens are going to play. And that game is called defining the rules of the game and allowing the citizens to be active participants of change.” Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org · Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

“I mentioned before that one of the reasons why we haven't been able to overcome many of the climate crisis factors is because people don't understand what it means. What is it about? What can I do? Usually, when we hear these experts speak about the climate crisis, at least me, I don't understand 9/10ths of the speech or the document. Simplifying the message, allowing that difficult scientific knowledge to become popular language that I can use when explaining to a child, to a rural person, to someone who has a different type of education, that knows much more about the planet but not necessarily about university, explaining those difficult issues will make a difference. And we have to invest much more in that. Speaking difficult scientific language is not helpful to the majority of society.Few are producers, all of us are consumers. So we all have to participate in how we produce, what we produce and that means from infrastructure for a city to the way that a road is designed or that a marketplace builds its operations. To do it in a responsible way, in a sustainable way, you need the contribution of all. I would say that it's one of the most difficult challenges that humanity has–addressing the urban problems. Basically, because you cannot change a city from one day to the other, but I think that the starting point has to be change the citizen. And being a citizen has a lot of implications because the moment you realize you are a citizen you also need to accept that you have to be active, that you have to be an agent of change. We cannot expect this city to change, if the citizens don't want to mobilize an agenda to push for something, to request changes, to participate. I think the word participation is absolutely key. And we find in Latin America and in all continents that very often we have governments that curtail the capacity of citizens to be active, that tell the population to wait for a change, to be passive, to let the government do their job. And that's absolutely wrong because government is the one that defines court, the game that the citizens are going to play. And that game is called defining the rules of the game and allowing the citizens to be active participants of change.” Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. In 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was the Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board. From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit). From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2010-17, and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held from 1998 until 2000. She is a Member of the Board of Arabesque, and Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundacion Renova in Brazil. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team.· World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org· WWF International: worldwildlife.org · Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano: www.ffla.net/en/· Sistema B: sistemab.org· B Team: bteam.org · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info