World leaders met this week in Toyako on the Japanese island of Hokkaido to discuss climate change

the ninth meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity concluded on May 30 in Bonn, Germany, with measures to protect ecosystems. The Conference of Parties (cop), the governing body of the convention, agreed on regulating the international biofuel sector. It also passed a moratorium on ocean fertilization

the run-up to the high-level conference on food security in Rome promised a substantial shift in agricul-tural outlook, given host Food and Agricultural Organization

while anti-gm lobby is gaining ground in Germany, France retracted its earlier stand and passed the gm crops bill allowing trials. Reports said the bill came through despite majority of the

Ocean-fertilization advocates suffered another setback last week as 191 nations agreed to a moratorium on large-scale commercial schemes to mitigate climate change. The agreement, adopted on 30 May at a meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany, calls for a ban on major ocean fertilization projects until scientists better understand the potential risks and benefits of manipulating the oceanic food chain.

The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition situation of people around the world, especially the poor in developing countries; about inflation; and

Book>> NGO Diplomacy

spoiling act

Global environmental problems like climate change should be conceptualised as problems of consumption and not production patterns. A consumption rather than a production-based vision for environmentally sustainable economic growth would make the design and implementation of climate protection, as well as other environmental problems, more effective.

Environmental policymaking has been equated with the art of making the right decisions based on an insufficient understanding of the underlying problems.

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