Chinese appointed head of UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia. Now China controls UN-DESA/ECOSOC as well as all development aid to Asia

Chinese national is new UN assistant secretary general

Click here for this in full @: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/chinese-national-is-new-un-assistant-secretary-general/414112-2.html

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday appointed China's Haoliang Xu as assistant secretary general, an official said. "He will replace Ajay Chhibber of India, who will return to his government," Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Haoliang Xu will also be appointed as assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The new assistant secretary general "has many years of distinguished service within UNDP holding various leadership positions, most recently as deputy regional director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in New York since 2010," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Digital Journal: Carbon-Emissions Market - New Industry Research Report is Now Available for Pre-Order at Transparency Market Research

Click here for this in full @: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1408838

Carbon emissions were traded at minor levels over the past few years. However, the involvement of governments in stabilizing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases has resulted in tremendous growth in the carbon emissions market.

The successful implementation of the carbon emissions schemes depends on climate policy enforcement, climate change, and domestic politics. Many countries are taking firm steps for environmental improvement. With all these factors, the carbon emission market is expected to witness double digit growth, thereby providing significant opportunities for utilities and investments in the near future.

The major players in carbon emissions market are 3 Degrees Incorporated, APX Incorporated, Baker & McKenzie, Blue Source, CantorCO2e LLC, Climate Focus, EcoSecurities Group plc, Evolution Markets, Fortis, MGM International, Natsource, RNK Capital LLC, Sterling Planet Incorporated, Tradition Financial Services, TUV SUD America, and others.

Browse the report with Request TOC at http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/carbon-emissions-market.html

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1408838#ixzz2cEoCar6D

Another United Nations envoy to investigate Canada's treatment of Aboriginal Peoples

Click here for this in full @: http://www.saultstar.com/2013/08/10/un-to-investigate-canadas-treatment-of-aboriginal-peoples

Another United Nations envoy is headed for Canada to check up on us, and this time it will focus on the country's the treatment of Aboriginal Peoples.

Last year it was the UN's special envoy on food security, and Olivier De Schutter -- the UN special rapporteur on the right to food -- wasn't impressed. He concluded that Canada's "self-righteous" attitude belies a very real issue of food insecurity.

The report was widely dismissed and literally laughed at by Conservative cabinet ministers.

Though the relationship between Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government and the UN has been strained, Canada has granted permission for this latest special envoy, which will make three trips here and produce three reports on what it finds.

The Examiner: U.N. pushes the idea of Climate Change being the cause of Haiti's cholera !

Click here for this in full @: http://www.examiner.com/article/did-climate-change-contribute-to-haiti-s-post-quake-cholera-outbreak

August 7, 2013

On August 6, the Washington Post published details of Yale University’s most recent report slamming theUnited Nations for bringing cholera into Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

According to the Yale report, the lack of response on the part of the United Nations “violates obligations under international law by not providing a forum to address the grievances of cholera victims.”

Last month, a report authored by a group of former United Nations scientists used DNA testing to link the cholera bacteria responsible for the outbreak to UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The evidence, which offers strong support for the UN's culpability, caused international outrage and demands that the United Nations take responsibility for its unintentional infection of Haiti earthquake victims.

Mary Robinson says: "United Nations should treat Climate Change as a human rights issue" !

Opinion: Climate change as a human rights and justice issue

Click here for this in full @: http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/46843/opinion-climate-change-as-a-human-rights-and-justice-issue-201346843/

Global warming and climate change present humankind with one of the greatest challenges in the history of our species. While there is now broad acknowledgment of this fact, for those of us in the world’s most developed countries, our awareness is often abstracted: We see climate change as just an environmental problem that will somehow be solved, or our view is shaped by the kind of horrific disasters that make for sensational headlines and gripping news footage. Then we forget all about it until the next disaster flashes across our screens.

What shouldn’t be overlooked is that the effects of climate change are cumulative. They do not always take the form of extreme natural disasters. Climate change is already having a profoundly adverse impact on poorer communities around the world, as they experience, for example, a heavy rainfall that destroys a farmer’s entire crop during the normally dry season. The people most affected – women, children, and the most vulnerable – are the least responsible for causing climate change, and also the least able to cope.

United Nations wants to control Small-Scale Fisheries around the world !

Click here for this in full @: http://www.thecoaster.ca/News/Local/2013-08-06/article-3340086/Allen-attends-UN-meeting-on-small-scale-fisheries/1

Will study small-scale fisheries in Coast of Bays

Topics : 

United Nations , Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , Canadian Fisheries Research Network , Bays , Newfoundland and Labrador , Rome

Sharmane Allen, a former resident of Harbour Breton, found herself a long way from Newfoundland in May as she was in Rome, Italy attending consultations hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on small- scale fisheries (SSF).

Ms. Allen was asked to be part of a civil society delegation at the international meetings by the Canadian Fisheries Research Network and was a delegate with the World Forum on Fisheries People.

She said, “As a PhD student at Memorial University studying SSF in Newfoundland and Labrador, this opportunity was invaluable in many ways.

“The United Nations contends that if the world does not recognize the importance of SSF and protect their existence, the future of this sector is bleak as it is facing a number of common problems worldwide.”

W.P. The Insiders: Another UN global climate warming report, AR5, may fuel Democrats’ defeat

Click here for this in full @: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/08/05/the-insiders-another-un-global-climate-warming-report-ar5-may-fuel-democrats-defeat/

The Manhattan skyline — now. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)

If you think your summer reading is deficient, maybe you could get your hands on an advance copy of the 2013 Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Its 2007 assessment report, AR4, weighed in at 20 pounds and was more than 3,000 pages long. I wonder if anyone in America, much less in the Obama administration, even read that report. And, apparently, this year’s report, which will be released in September, will be even longer and heavier.

The causes and consequences of global warming remain uncertain, but that’s not even the point. If all the dire predictions and the left’s wildest fantasies come true, it just might be President Obama’s failure as a diplomat that we’ll all reflect on as we’re standing in knee-deep water on the third floor of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan.

New Zealand's Moses speaks of "self-belief as winning ingredient to climb back to power"....

click here for this in full @: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10908242

Helen Clark was one of the weekend's inspirational speakers at the TEDx Auckland conference. Photo / Steven McNicholl

If Labour leader David Shearer wants a tip from a winner, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says her advice is always to "be yourself".

"Believe in yourself because if you don't believe in yourself in life, no one else will ever believe in you," she says.

"You have to believe you can do it. You have to express your ideas clearly. You have to build your base in the community."

She emerged from "death-zone rating" in opposition - polling as low as 2 per cent as preferred Prime Minister in a Colmar Brunton poll.

She came out of it, not by working harder - "I couldn't have worked any harder" - but working smarter, having extensive networks in her party and in the community who believed she was the person who could make a difference.

Study finds climate change is causing modifications to marine life behavior

Read this in full at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-ucsb-climate-modifications-marine-life.html#jCp

Warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding, feeding, and migration timing. Credit: University of California - Santa Barbara

Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, yet our knowledge of the impact of climate change on marine habitats is a mere drop in the proverbial ocean compared to terrestrial systems. An international team of scientists set out to change that by conducting a global meta-analysis of climate change impacts on marine systems.

Counter to previous thinking, marine species are shifting their geographic distribution toward the poles and doing so much faster than their land-based counterparts. The findings were published in Nature Climate Change.

The three-year study, conducted by a working group of UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and funded by the National Science Foundation, shows that warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding, feeding, and migration timing as well as shift where they live. Widespread systemic shifts in measures such as distribution of species and phenology—the timing of nature's calendar—are on a scale comparable to or greater than those observed on land.

Read this in full at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-ucsb-climate-modifications-marine-life.html#jCp

UN accredits NGO whose head is ‘glad to be labeled anti-Semitic’

Click here for this in full @: http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-accredits-ngo-whose-head-is-glad-to-be-labeled-anti-semitic/

A United Nations committee dedicated to Palestinians’ rights accredited a nongovernmental organization headed by the former prime minister of Malaysia, a controversial figure who has said he is “glad” to be called an anti-Semite, sparking protests by pro-Israel groups.

At a session in New York last week, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People officially granted accreditation to five civil society organizations, among them the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, which was founded by Mahathir Mohamad.

Mohamad, who served as Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 until 2003, has repeatedly sparked controversy with his anti-Western and anti-Semitic comments. In a 2003 speech, he said that “the Jews rule the world by proxy” and get “others to fight and die for them.” During the same speech, he further stated, “They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these, they have now gained control of the most powerful countries.”

Is UNDP Syria training Bashar al-Assad how to use Instagram?

Editorial: Bashar al-Assad joins Instagram

1

• BY GARY DICKSON
• IN MID-EAST & AFRICA · SYRIA
• — 4 AUG, 2013

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has joined Instagram in the latest attempt to change public narrative surrounding his family.The move was immediately denounced by the United States. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said it was ‘repulsive’ to gloss over the ‘brutality and suffering’ caused by the ongoing Syrian Civil War, which has killed up to 120,000 people since it began three years ago.

The universally loved & supported President Bashar al-Assad.

“We would encourage people to take a look at unfiltered photos of what’s actually happening on the ground,” Harf said.

Click here for this in full @: http://thetypewriter.org/4840/2013.08/mid-east-africa/editorial-bashar-al-assad-joins-instagram/

As UNDP Re-Directs to Airline Ads, No Answer on $10 to Hear Clark, FUNCA

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.innercitypress.com/funca1undpunsc080413.html

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 4 -- While the UN Development Program has not explained a $10 charge to hear Administrator Helen Clark speak, after 24 hours, its Liberia website's "Delivering as One" section is re-directing traffic to airline advertisements.

  While the UN's main Twitter account @UN quickly responded to the Free UN Coalition for Access when@FUNCA_info raised this problem -- the UN deleted its own link, which it said worked when it had been "scheduled" --UNDP has still not respond on that or the charging of money to hear its Administrator speak.

  Helen Clark, who will apparently be in her native New Zealand from July past the middle of August, also has not explained the $5 charge for children to hear her on August 7 at the Baycourt Centennial Theatre in Tauranga City, New Zealand. 

At UNDP, Pay to Listen to Clark, Pay to Ask through UNCA, FUNCA Fights

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.innercitypress.com/funca1undpay080313.html

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- How can people be charged money, $10 for adults and even $5 for children, to hear a UN system official speak about their work for the UN?

  The Free UN Coalition for Access put this question to the UN Development Program's three top spokespeople regarding UNDP Administrator Helen Clark's upcoming August 7 talk at the Baycourt Centennial Theatre in Tauranga City, New Zealand.

  The advertisement says Clark "will be speaking about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program, the peak global body that coordinates development strategy globally, and works in over 170 countries to empower people’s lives while helping nations become more resilient. With a budget of over $US 5 billion a year."

  Five billion dollars a year but Administrator Helen Clark virtually never holds a question and answer press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

Chicago Tribune: Italian firm to provide surveillance drone for U.N. in Congo

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-congo-democratic-un-drones-20130801,0,2616946.story


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it has procured an unarmed surveillance drone from Italian defense electronics firm Selex ES, a unit of Finmeccanica, that will be deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks.

It will be the first time the United Nations has used such equipment and, if the trial use by peacekeepers in eastern Congo is successful, officials and diplomats also hope the drones could be used by missions in Ivory Coast and South Sudan.

"Unarmed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will allow our peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor the movements of armed groups and protect the civilian population more efficiently," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

"The selected vendor is the Italian company Selex ES. The UAV is known as the Falco and is designed to be a medium altitude, medium endurance surveillance platform capable of carrying a range of payloads including several types of high resolution sensors," Nesirky said.

Fox News: UN's messy, billion-dollar peacekeeping air charter business hugely unfavorable to US

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/01/uns-messy-billion-dollar-peacekeeping-air-charter-business-hugely-unfavorable/

Four years after United Nations auditors declared that the U.N.’s  billion-dollar program for moving people and equipment on peacekeeping charter flights was a  mess, the world organization still spends too much to rent airplanes and helicopters, still favors a few suppliers of equipment over those who might want to bid for the work, and still doesn’t have the tools to keep track of its sprawling and overpriced system.

Moreover, an examination by Fox News of U.N. procurement records shows that the results of the deeply flawed air charter system are hugely unfavorable to the United States, which pays by far the largest chunk of the U.N.’s peacekeeping budget.

A follow-up audit to the one released in 2009 also shows that  U.N. agencies largely failed to do what the watchdogs recommended in order to fix the system, although the U.N. is apparently scrambling to straighten out some of the problems now. Result: many of the same bad practices are still occurring.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/01/uns-messy-billion-dollar-peacekeeping-air-charter-business-hugely-unfavorable/#ixzz2b0Yrct1X

Climate innovation debate: What’s the future for carbon trading systems, around the world?

Click here for this in full @: http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/news/76233/Climate-innovation-debate-What’s-the-future-for-carbon-trading-systems,-around-the-world

A focused panel of experts from business, academia and politics will consider how different regional carbon trading systems should be modified in order to enable them to effectively combat climate change. The debate, to be held on 24 September, is organised by Climate-KIC, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

The European Commission and Parliament have been struggling to find a solution to plunging carbon prices, with a compromise deal being struck only as recently as June and many publicly questioning the future of the system.

Advocates, however, have called for the success of carbon trading to be determined based on the level of carbon reduction, rather than the price of carbon. Research has been published to suggest that the market-based approach of Europe’s carbon trading system is still delivering results.

Meanwhile, international policy makers are looking to adopt local versions of Europe’s carbon trading system. Climate-KIC will now bring together a panel of experts to discuss the future of carbon trading, and its effect on long term climate change mitigation and adaption.

Fox News: Hot under the collar: Study links climate change to rising tempers

Fox News

WASHINGTON –  Feeling hot under the collar? It may not be all in your head.

A new study connects rising world temperatures with aggressive acts of violence and even war -- but experts in the causes of war gave the report a chilly reception.

For the paper, researchers analyzed 60 studies on historic empire collapses, recent wars, violent crime rates in the United States, lab simulations that tested police decisions on when to shoot and even cases where pitchers threw deliberately at batters in baseball. They found a common thread over centuries: Extreme weather — very hot or dry — means more violence.

The authors say the results show strong evidence that climate can promote conflict.

Read this in full at Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/08/02/every-degree-warmer-risk-violent-crime-war/#ixzz2b0XG84GL

UN reliance on private military security companies growing, lacks transparency

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/panel-un-reliance-on-private-military-security-companies-growing-lacks-transparency/2013/08/01/f904d50e-fb16-11e2-89f7-8599e3f77a67_story.html

UNITED NATIONS — An expert panel called Thursday for more transparency surrounding the deepening reliance of the United Nations on private security companies for services from armed guards to police training.

The Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, an independent panel mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, held a series of meetings and debates this week as part of its ongoing investigation into a practice that is drawing increasing scrutiny. The five-member group plans to present a report next year.

Ban Ki-moon appoints Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania as Deputy Executive Director of UNEP

Click here for this story in full @: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45556&Cr=unep&Cr1=#.Uf5YDZUnIeM

Ibrahim Thiaw. Photo: UN Multimedia

2 August 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania to be the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations agency that is the Organization’s voice on environmental issues.

Mr. Thiaw will succeed Amina Mohamed of Kenya as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“His professional career spans the full spectrum of practical work at national and regional levels to leading global programmes and experience of United Nations inter-agency and intergovernmental processes,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson’s office said in a statement announcing the appointment.

U.N. expat settles in PH to promote green energy

Click here for this story in full @: http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/08/04/un-expat-settles-in-ph-to-promote-green-energy/

Peter Noel Pembleton, a British national who had worked for the United Nations for over three decades, is now using his expertise to promote carbon finance and green energy in the Philippines.

Married to a Filipino woman, Pembleton, 64, settled in the Philippines in 2009 and established a carbon trading consulting firm that helps companies take advantage of a global treaty designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

His initial experience after settling in the Philippines is a period of adjustment.  Pembleton says working in the country is not easy and he has to learn to practice patience in times of delays.

However, he says the Philippines has a competitive edge over its Southeast Asian neighbors.  “While there are many things that could be improved upon in the business/working environment, I have also learnt that the Philippines has a comparative advantage in the Asean region in terms of its educated, English-speaking workforce,” he says.