Archive for 'environment'
A couple of days ago, I had coffee with a friend and ended up talking about my move from London to Glasgow, just over a year and a half ago. I told my friend that when I first moved, I started off trying to enjoy Glasgow in the same way I enjoyed London. I rented a small [...]
My alarm goes off at 6.15am. I hit the snooze button and realise I've been dreaming about work. I must be nervous. Not surprised really. Today's going to be busy, despite the fact that the "text" - all 283 paragraphs of it - was agreed by negotiators yesterday. Today is the high level summit - [...]
The UK's Foresight programme is intended to help government think systematically about the future. It helps to improve how we use science and technology within government and society. It does this by drawing on well-tested, scientifically valid techniques to inform those responsible for developing policy and strategy in government. The Foresight Migration and Global Environmental [...]
The opportunity to attend a COP (Conference of the Parties) event, and one that was hosted in South Africa where I grew up, was a dream come true for me - a once in a lifetime event I won't soon forget. I am still digesting all the information shared at the various 'side events' and associated [...]
"Green growth" is en vogue in the development and international affairs world. The Republic of Korea has created a new Global Green Growth Institute, and a major UN Summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro in July 2012 will focus on two topics – one of which will be "green economy". The OECD has [...]
Maintaining and restoring mangrove cover helps protect areas of coastline or shoreline from erosion. This is done by absorbing the increasing energy and force of waves, due to sea level rise or powerful tropical storms and hurricanes, that might otherwise cause tremendous loss of life, livelihoods and property. Special adaptive aerial roots and salt-filtering tap [...]
To get to the other side, of course. Think of a silverback gorilla and a comparison with a lollipop lady probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. But on a road I visited this week in eastern DRC, the silverbacks play exactly that role. In the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, humans and eastern lowland gorillas have [...]
First of all, let me apologise for the inordinate delay since my last blog on this site. One of my excuses is that during this period DFID India, along with other DFID offices across the world, has been busily engaged in drawing up new business plans for the next four years. We in India have also [...]
A number of you have asked me in comments on my blog about how we involve local communities in our roads programmes. And I'm overdue to tell you about my recent field visit, which I mentioned in my blog on DFID's Bilateral Aid Review announcement. These two issues fit together neatly. My visit was to [...]
I’ve just finished reading "When a Billion Chinese Jump" by Jonathan Watts. It took me a while – it's a pretty huge book, with copious notes to flick back and forth to. But I am glad I got there. Yes, the book is rather depressing. But it is also an engaging tour of the country, [...]
