Money can’t stop climate change and extreme weather events from happening in Switzerland, Peter Binder of national weather provider MeteoSwiss warns at the 2019 World Meteorological Congress in Geneva. “We will experience more hot nights” and “more frequent droughts.”
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MeteoSwiss: Money can’t buy climate change halt
Money can’t stop climate change and extreme weather events from happening in Switzerland, Peter Binder of national weather provider MeteoSwiss warns at the 2019 World Meteorological Congress in Geneva. “We will experience more hot nights” and “more frequent droughts.”
Space technologies to become more affordable, says pioneer Ansari
Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer, believes that in the next 50 years, humans “will have a settlement on the moon.” At the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Ansari, also CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation backed by Elon Musk, says that she thinks space business will flourish.
Swiss banks absent from new UN sustainability initiative
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Finance Initiative looks to better embed sustainability in bank operations to help tackle global warming. There are already more than 2,000 global signatories representing more than USD 80 trillion in assets. But out of the 80 banks that have given their support so far, none of them are Swiss. Eric Usher, who heads the initiative, says he has “high expectations” that they will join the mix before its launch in September.
Why eco-friendly Switzerland needs to clean up its plastic trash
The European Union’s law to ban single-use plastic items will come into effect in 2021. But the Swiss government is reluctant to take similar steps to fight plastic waste. Bruno Pozzi, the new director at the UN Environment’s Europe Office, says the choice is ours.
Using blockchain to rebuild consumer trust in the food industry
Food giants like Nestlé and Unilever use IBM’s Food Trust blockchain, a digital system for tracking and tracing foods, to find contamination in their supply chains. But Kazuaki Miyagishima, director at the Department of Food Safety at the World Health Organization, is concerned that small food companies don’t have access to such technologies.
UNCTAD wants to turn women from e-shoppers into digital changemakers
The new eTrade for Women Network launched by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva aims at closing the digital gender gap. “This can become a global powerhouse,” says the network’s coordinator Candace Nkoth Bisseck.
“There is no planet B,” says student group at the UN in Geneva
Young students from around the world participated in the Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN) 2019. They simulated the negotiation processes of the actual UN. But the students say that it’s more than just a game. Find out how these youth delegates plan to take climate change action to another level back home.
NGO hopes to set Swiss business practices abroad straight
For the past 50 years, Public Eye has monitored the business practices of Swiss companies abroad. The Responsible Business Initiative in 2020 could be a game changer, and the NGO’s Andreas Missbach says the fight will be between big campaign money and grassroots activists.