I had the distinct pleasure of co-authoring this major new United Nations Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Technology Report with my distinguished colleague Diane Coyle. The report looks at innovation in the use of technology along the time line of crisis response, from emergency preparedness and alerts to recovery and rebuilding.
Having multiple resilient and trustworthy communication networks is a key requirement to be able to assess and react to a crisis, and technological developments offer new exciting opportunities to improve situational awareness, and document crisis information that would otherwise fall behind the horizon of the press and other conventional channels.
During an emergency, established communication channels may fail. One of the most effective channels to rapidly gather information is to tap into the only resource that is always present: the general public.
The prospects for a unified front between developed and developing nations in combating climate change further broke down today, as more than half of the world's countries -- mostly smaller nations, including those most threatened by the effects of global warming -- pledged not to sign any accord that allows global temperatures to rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. (Abhishek's got more on that)
The president is not the only American official making waves in Europe today. According to this post in the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson had a "veni, vidi, vici moment" in Copenhagen.
By Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Old and new forms of discrimination and intolerance continue to divide communities all over the world. Sentiments of xenophobia are on the rise. They are often manipulated for demagogic purposes or even for sinister political agendas. Day after day, their corrosive effects undermine the rights of countless victims. This is why today on Human Rights Day, the United Nations is urging everyone everywhere in the world to embrace diversity and end discrimination.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is reasserting control over the negotiations after a leaked document raised what he called "trust issues" between developed and developing countries. The UN's top climate diplomat says the document is just one informal proposal and he real work will be done at the negotiating table.
The Ugandan government is currently debating a new law against homosexuality. Regular homosexuality is punishable by seven years in prison. Being HIV positive and having gay sex – even with a condom – would be punishable by death. I don't think it is culturally insensitive to say that this is a very bad law.
"The Chinese commitment target is a strong one by any measure. No developing country in economic history—other than post-Mao China—has cut its energy-related greenhouse gas emissions growth so deeply for so long.