UNDP throws more $$CASH$$ into voter registration in Yemen - if anything goes wrong - please don't blame UNDP (as usual)

Click here to read this in full @ Reliefweb: http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/united-nations-development-programme-reconfirms-its-strong-commitment-and-support

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reconfirms its strong commitment and support to the transitional process through its continued support to Yemen’s update to the Voter Registry, Constitutional Referendum and post-Referendum elections by the signing of an agreement in the amount of 27 million SEK (approximately US $4 million) with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for the implementation of the Support to the Elections during the Transitional Period (SETP) project in Yemen. The agreements were exchanged on Monday, December 17, 2012 by the Ambassador of Sweden, Senior Country Director of UNDP, the Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Elections and Referenda (SCER), and the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation at the latter’s office.

The SETP project aims to support the planning and administration of voter registration, the constitutional referendum, and remaining elections of the transitional period; to support inclusive electoral legal framework reform and to increase participation of civil society, political parties, women, youth and persons with disabilities in electoral processes.

“Sweden is now the first contributor for the preparation of voter registration efforts and the coming referendum" said Gustavo Gonzalez, UNDP Yemen Senior Country Director, who led the UNDP delegation. Stressing on the importance of the electoral reforms for fair and impartial elections, “If the National Dialogue is at the heart of the transitional process, elections are what sustains its beat. Elections bring political legitimacy and inclusiveness. Sustainable development in Yemen is unthinkable without a strong democracy. This is why UNDP is strongly investing in elections.”

Joe Torsella of USUN admits failure: "United Nations is at 8.6% overbudget"

17 Dec Joe Torsella ‏@USJoe_UN

By next December the #UN budget achievement of last year could disappear & we'll have returned to business as usual. A net 8.6% increase. 

Breaking News: UNDP is studying the possibility of offering post-disaster assistance to Rockaways County in New York

LEADER WITH A VISION

Click here for this story in full (video) : http://vimeo.com/55647072

For One Day on Earth 12.12.12 Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, toured the Rockaways in New York City to see first hand the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. She visited homes that have been made unlivable due to the onset of mould and that are being rebuilt by Respond and Rebuild a small volunteer group working in the area.

Face of the Day (Helen Clark)

Courtesy of Whale Oil Beef Hooked: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/tag/helen-clark/

Secretary-General returns to $2.9 Million dollar "eco-friendly" office.

Click here for this in full at UN DPI: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43790&Cr=secretary-general&Cr1=#.UNE5v4XK49A

 

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right), accompanied by Chef de Cabinet Susana Malcorra, returning to his usual office at the completion of renovation. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Leaked UN/IPCC Report Predicts ‘Irreversible’ Climate Change

Click here to read this in full @ ENS News Service: http://ens-newswire.com/2012/12/17/leaked-un-report-predicts-irreversible-climate-change/

WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2012 (ENS) – A leaked early draft of the UN’s latest climate change study shows human activities to be responsible for climate warming that will take centuries to reverse, even if greenhouse gas emissions were to stop right now.

“Many aspects of climate change will persist for centuries even if concentrations of greenhouse gases are stabilised. This represents a substantial multi-century commitment created by human activities today,” states the draft report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Blogger Alec Rawls leaked the draft on his website: www.stopgreensuicide.com.

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1xdq0)

While America is mourning the Newtown's tragedy: Ban Ki-moon gets an armored vehicle made-in Korea

Click here to read this in full @ Motor Authority: http://www.motorauthority.com/image/100413217_un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-checks-out-his-armored-hyundai-equus--image-hyundai

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon checks out his armored Hyundai Equus - image: Hyundai

 

UN Gateway (another one) to UN's work on climate change

(Doha, 8 December 2012) At the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar (COP18/CMP8), governments have taken the next essential step in the global response to climate change. Countries have successfully launched a new commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, agreed a firm timetable to adopt a universal climate agreement by 2015 and agreed a path to raise necessary ambition to respond to climate change. They also endorsed the completion of new institutions and agreed ways and means to deliver scaled-up climate finance and technology to developing countries.

“Doha has opened up a new gateway to bigger ambition and to greater action – the Doha Climate Gateway.  Qatar is proud to have been able to bring governments here to achieve this historic task. I thank all governments and ministers for their work to achieve this success. Now governments must move quickly through the Doha Climate Gateway to push forward with the solutions to climate change,” said COP President Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah.

Click here for full access @ :  http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/climatechange/pages/gateway/the-negotiations/template/news_item.jsp?cid=37700

NyTimes: Doha: Weirdly Tame and Dispirited

Click here for this in full @ NyTimes: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/doha-weirdly-tame-and-dispirited/

By ROBERT B. SEMPLE JR.

 

The annual United Nations climate change negotiations this year in Doha, which wrapped up on Dec. 8, seemed weirdly tame and dispirited. There was minimal press coverage and, as Jennifer Haverkamp of the Environmental Defense Fund observed, there were “no people in polar bear suits, no passionate youth doing skits, no melting ice sculptures—no real infusion of energy.”  There was also no solid agreement on how to confront the threat of global warming by slowing the seemingly inexorable rise of heat-trapping emissions or by helping poor nations mitigate the inevitable damage or, preferably, both. That was not weird. These conferences have not produced a binding document since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which was itself flawed because it asked nothing of big developing nations, and, partly for that reason, was never ratified by the United States Congress.

Nicholas Stern comments on outcome of United Nations climate change summit in Doha

Click here for this in full @: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/Media/Releases/2012/MR071212-nicholas-stern-climate-change-summit-doha-outcome.aspx

Saturday 7 December 2012
 
Commenting on the outcome today (7 December) of the United Nations climate change summit at Doha, Qatar, Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“The Doha Gateway Package represents modest but important progress from last year’s summit in Durban, which set out the principles of an international agreement in 2015 for action by both rich and developing countries to tackle climate change. Doha has laid out a work programme through which countries can reach agreement in 2015. The decisions taken in Durban and Doha both take into account that although rich countries, with 1 billion people, have been responsible for the bulk of historical emissions of greenhouse gases, developing countries, with 6 billion people, now emit about half the annual total, based on either consumption or production. It is vital that all countries reduce emissions and that rich countries take a lead in both creating low-carbon growth for themselves and in supporting developing countries to find a new and sustainable approach to growth, development and poverty reduction.

Joint Press Conference with Helen Clark in Iraq

Kaarina Immonen of Finland Deputy Special Representative for Central African Republic

Secretary-General Appoints Kaarina Immonen of Finland Deputy Special

Representative for Central African Republic

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Kaarina Immonen of Finland as his Deputy Special Representative in the Central African Republic.  Ms. Immonen will also serve as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator.

She succeeds Bo Schack of Denmark, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his long and continuing service to the Organization, and his commitment to peace consolidation and stability in the Central African Republic.  The Secretary-General would also like to extend his gratitude to Modibo Touré for his contribution to United Nations efforts in his capacity as Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. in that country.

Ms. Immonen brings more than 16 years of experience in conflict prevention and recovery, development and field operations management to her new position.  Prior to her latest appointment, she served in various capacities at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), including United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Moldova, from 2007 to 2012.

She was UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in the Russian Federation and held a similar position in Georgia.  Having started her career as a Junior Professional Officer in the Congo, she went on to other UNDP assignments in Viet Nam, Rwanda, Kenya and Cambodia.

Ms. Immonen holds a master’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.