【ナイロビIDN＝ジョシュア・マシンデ】
エネルギーの生産的な利用がアフリカ農村地帯の生活改善の鍵を握っている。電力や技術へのアクセスが良くなれば、零細企業は生産過程と効率を向上させることができる。
電力が利用できなければ、農村の零細企業は、労働集約的で時間のかかる手動の道具に頼らざるを得ず、その結果、製品に付加価値をつけたり多様化させたりする多くの機会を、しばしば逃すことになる。
SDGs for All is a joint media project of the global news organization International Press Syndicate (INPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI). It aims to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets. It offers in-depth news and analyses of local, national, regional and global action for people, planet and prosperity. This project website is also a reference point for discussions, decisions and substantive actions related to 17 goals and 169 targets to move the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.
By Joshua Masinde
NAIROBI (IDN) – Productive use of energy holds the key to livelihood transformation in Africa’s rural areas. Small industries could improve their production processes and efficiency if they had better access to electricity and technologies.
Without electricity, rural micro-enterprises make do with labour intensive and time-consuming manual tools, and often pass up many opportunities for value addition or product diversification.
Satisfying the need for power of commercial enterprises presents an opportunity for private sector players such as JUMEME, a Tanzanian company that develops solar-powered mini-grids to connect businesses and households in remote areas. (P04) | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – About one billion people around the world live without electricity. Close to three billion lack access to clean cooking solutions and are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, which results in millions of deaths each year, mostly among women and children.
Against this disquieting backdrop, a new publication supported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has called for urgent action. Without such action, the world will fall short of its 2030 energy targets and, consequently, fail to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
By Julia Zimmerman*
This is the fifth in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor
VIENNA (IDN) – Of the numerous and significant challenges currently facing women and girls globally, access to sexual and reproductive rights is high on the list. Experts in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health are trying to assure access and to spread knowledge about harmful practices.
By Justus Wanzala
NAIROBI (IDN) – Heightened demand for energy, a shift in policy and the emergence of viable entrepreneurial innovations are propelling transition to sustainable energy in the East African region.
This emerged during a two-day conference organised by Kenya’s Strathmore University‘s Energy Research Centre (SERC) in partnership with Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) – an association that promotes the deployment of large-scale and decentralised renewable energy in sub-Saharan African countries. The meeting was held on in Nairobi.
By John Scales Avery*
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. Presently an Associate Professor in quantum chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, he is working on a book with the title 'THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY: Two time scales'. A first draft of the book can be downloaded from: http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/climate.pdf. The following are excerpts from introduction to the book. – The Editor
COPENHAGEN (IDN) - Quick change is needed to save the long-term future. The central problem, which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change, is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most catastrophic effects of climate change, we need to act immediately. Fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Forests must be saved from destruction by beef or palm oil production.
By Jaya Ramachandran
BONN (IDN) – Scientists are warning of a profound impact on human health and migration, leading to civil unrest and conflict. In a new statement to national representatives meeting in Bonn for the annual climate talks widely known as COP23, scientists said that Earth is approaching tipping points that threaten human security.
The warning that Planet Earth is coming close to a critical situation – when a series of small climate changes would become significant enough to cause havoc – comes as global emissions are projected to rise after three stable years.
COP23 is an abbreviation for the 23rd session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the former West German capital city Bonn, from November 6 to 17.
By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE (IDN) - He struggles with a huge solar panel as he crawls on the rooftop of his house. Just below him, on the ground, stands his wife gazing upwards, with one hand partially covering her face from direct sun heat.
Nevson Devera, for that is his name, at the age of 44 and domiciled in Harare the Zimbabwean capital, has not had electricity from the country’s main power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, connected to his house, 15 years after he built it. Tired of using fossil fuels for energy, he and his wife Sarudzai have turned to the sun for electricity.
Even across the border, north of this Southern African nation, in Zambia, thousands of people have also switched to the sun for power supplies amid inadequate electricity in the country. In fact, in both rural and urban areas across Southern Africa, use of solar energy has become a regional trend.
By Justus Wanzala
KAKUMA, Kenya (IDN) – As the sun shrinks into a red ball steadily disappearing beyond the horizon, residents of Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana County, north-western Kenya, adjust to their evening routines. Late shoppers rush out to food stores, school children pick up their books and mothers start preparing the last meal of the day.
Darkness quickly envelopes the camp – which is administered by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – and only a few businesses and homesteads are in the fortunate position of possessing diesel generators or solar and kerosene lanterns to provide lighting. Like most places in northern Kenya, Kakuma refugee camp – home to some 170,000 refugees from neighbouring South Sudan, Burundi, Somalia and Congo among others – is off grid, meaning that access to electricity for lighting and other uses is limited. (P17) FRENCH｜JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SWAHILI
By Fabíola Ortiz
MARRAKECH (IDN) - The ambitious Moroccan plan for harnessing heat coming from the sun in the Sahara desert and turning it into electricity has drawn international attention, also during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22), held in Marrakech, between November 7-18.
Two hundred kilometres Northeast drive from the COP22 venue lies the 450 hectares Noor solar complex. When it starts fully operating in 2018, it will power over one million households and curb 760,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.
The whole Moroccan capital city Rabat fits in this power station said to be the world’s largest solar plant compared to the size of the European city of Barcelona. Noor is located at the desert town of Ouarzazate surrounded by the Atlas mountain range and its Berber villages. Named as the gate to the desert, Ouarzazate has also become the gate to tapping the solar energy. (P36) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | URDU
