Posts by Neena Bhandari

Post-pandemic Asia Pacific lags on climate SDG – UN

0 Comments read Environment & Development
Impacts of COVID-19, climate change and human-made crises have further disadvantaged vulnerable groups, including rural populations, poorer households, women and people with severe disabilities, says a UN report. Tai O fishing village on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): The Asia Pacific region has significantly regressed on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to climate action and responsible consumption and production, moving the region further away from the 2030 goalpost, according to a UN report.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) 2022 Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report, launched on 17 March, notes that inequality in the region has widened due to impacts of COVID-19, climate change and human-made crises. It says vulnerable groups, including women, rural populations, poorer households and people with severe disabilities, have been disadvantaged the most as a result.

“The sole focus on economic recovery post-pandemic is likely to hinder progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, which was already lagging to begin with,” Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP’s executive secretary, tells SciDev.Net. “As the region strives to build back better and recover, the 2030 Agenda can serve as a guiding mechanism for both economic and social development”.

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Scientists develop wheat types to resist heat, drought

0 Comments read Climate Change, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): Australian scientists have identified a novel combination of genetics that may help wheat survive in hot and dry conditions, thereby increasing yields and assisting farmers to adapt to climate change-induced heat and drought stress.

Wheat is the third-largest grain crop in the world, supplying about 20 per cent of the total calories and protein in the human diet worldwide, notes the research by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, published in Nature Climate Change on 7 March.

Researchers have identified three novel alternative dwarfing genes that enable wheat seeds to draw moisture stored twice as deep from the soil than current varieties. “We have genetics that can allow us to sow earlier and deeper up to 120 millimetres while keeping the plants short and allowing for very long coleoptile, which is the shoot that grows from the seed to the soil surface,” says Greg Rebetzke, co-author of the study and chief research scientist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food.

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Empowering women essential for improved climate response

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Gender
A girl making the Cambodian bamboo sticky rice with black beans in Battambang Province. Enabling women to participate in environmental decision-making is key to building a sustainable future for all. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): Women possess essential knowledge and skills, particularly at the local level, in the conservation and management of natural resources but have limited say in environmental decision-making, according to a report by UN Women Asia and the Pacific.

The report was published ahead of the 66th Commission on the Status of Women which is focusing on achieving gender equality in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. It says engaging women in these areas is critical to effective climate action.

“Women’s relationship to the environment is different to men’s in several complex but interlocking ways,” says Sarah Knibbs, officer-in-charge at UN Women Asia and the Pacific. “They are more exposed to some of the risks and also have a unique contribution to make to the solutions.”

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