Amidst a Horrendous 2023, Civil Society is Fighting Back Society

By Farhana Haque RahmanTORONTO, Canada, Dec 22 2023 (IPS) The year 2023 has brought so much tragedy, with incomprehensible loss of lives, whether from wars or devastating ‘natural’ disasters, while our planet has seen yet more records broken as our climate catastrophe worsens. And so as the clock ticks towards the (mostly western) New Year, readers are traditionally subjected by media outlets like ours to the ‘yearender’ – usually a roundup of main events over the previous 12 months, one horror often overshadowed by the next. Farhana Haque RahmanSo forgive us if for 2023 IPS takes a somewhat different approach, highlighting how humanity can do better, and how the big depressing picture should not obscure the myriad small but positive steps being taken out there. COP28, the global climate conference held this month in Dubai, could neatly fit the ‘big depressing’ category. Hosted by a petrostate with nearly 100,000 people registered to attend, many of them lobbyists for fossil fuels and other polluters, it would be natural to address its outcomes with scepticism. However, while Yamide Dagnet, Director for Climate Justice at the Open Society Foundations, described COP28 as “imperfect”, she said it also marked “an important and unprecedented step forward in our ‘course correction’ for a just transition towards resilient and greener economies.” UN climate chief Simon Stiell acknowledged shortcomings in the compromise resolutions on fossil fuels and th...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Armed Conflicts Biodiversity Civil Society Climate Change Climate Change Justice COP28 Economy & Trade Education Environment Featured Global Green Economy Headlines Health Human Rights TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news