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The nine countries with nuclear weapons boycotted the talks.
This article originally appeared on VICE News.
Over 120 countries adopted the United Nations' first-ever global ban on nuclear weapons Friday, in a significant milestone in the push against nuclear proliferation. Except for one thing: None of the countries that actually have nuclear weapons adopted the treaty, so it doesn't technically apply to them.
The ban, formally known as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, was officially adopted after months of negotiations by the UN General Assembly, with the Friday vote: 122 countries voted yes; one — the Netherlands — voted no; and one — Singapore — abstained. Among those voting yes was Iran, which reached a historic diplomatic accord in 2015 with the US and five other world powers curbing Tehran's ability to acquire a nuclear weapon.
The treaty explicitly says countries cannot "develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess, or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices."
Yet every one of the nine countries that have nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel — boycotted the talks.
"To ban nuclear weapons now would make us and our allies more vulnerable, and would strengthen bad actors like North Korea and Iran who would not abide by it," Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, told reporters at the outset of negotiations for the treaty in March.
"There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic," Haley said.
Still, the treaty serves as a symbolic and legal marker against using nuclear weapons in international warfare, Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica's ambassador to the UN and president of the conference that negotiated the ban told reporters Thursday.
"The world has been waiting for this legal norm for 70 years," said Whyte Gomez, referring to the nuclear bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.
Earlier this week, tensions between the US and North Korea markedly escalated after Pyongyang conducted its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. President Trump called on the international community "to confront this global threat and publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences for their very, very bad behavior."
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WINNING ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST TUNA COMPANY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE OCEANS
- - SARAH KING - MON JUL 10, 2017
Winning on the world’s largest tuna company and what it means for the oceans
It took two years of relentless campaigning and nearly 700,000 concerned people from around the world, but today we are sharing the good news that together we convinced the world’s largest tuna company to clean up its act!
Tuna giant Thai Union, which owns brands such as John West, Chicken of the Sea, Petit Navire, Mareblu, and Sealect, has committed to a series of changes to its business that will help to protect seafood workers, reduce destructive fishing practices, and increase support for more sustainable fishing. This marks a major shift for the corporation, and sends a signal to the entire fishing industry to do better for the oceans and seafood industry workers
How did this happen?
As the world’s biggest tuna producer, one in five cans of tuna sold globally are canned by Thai Union. Greenpeace’s global campaign to transform the tuna industry has included targeting its brands for several years through tuna rankings, along with assessments of foodservice companies, supermarkets, and other brands supplied by the company.
Almost two years ago, we launched a global campaign, calling on Thai Union to bring the tuna industry out of the shadows where a cycle of overexploitation, devastation and appalling labour practices flourish in the name of profit. Alongside our allies, unions, concerned members of the public and our supporters, we pushed the company toward a brighter future for our oceans, seafood workers and ocean-dependent communities
From our ships on the high seas, to supermarkets, industry conferences, and company headquarters, thousands of people including massive labour unions and human rights organizations joined our call for Thai Union to source more sustainably and responsibly. Together, we pushed companies supplied by Thai Union to sell better products and commit to policies that help workers and our oceans, including tackling practices like transshipment that fuel illegal activity and human rights abuses.
So how has Thai Union changed?
Thanks to the mounting pressure, starting immediately, the company will begin making the following changes across its global business.
Reduce fish aggregating device (FAD) use by an average of 50%, and double supply of verifiable FAD-free caught fish globally by 2020. FADs are floating objects that create mini ecosystems and result in the catch and killing of many marine species, including sharks, turtles, and juvenile tuna.
Shift significant portions of longline caught tuna to best practice pole and line or troll caught tuna by 2020 and implement strong requirements in place to help reduce bycatch. Longline vessels are known for catching and killing non-target species like seabirds, turtles, and sharks.
Extend its current moratorium on at-sea transshipment across its entire global supply chain unless strict conditions are met by suppliers. Transshipment at sea enables vessels to continue fishing for months or years at a time and facilitates illegal activity.
Ensure independent observers are present on all longline vessels transshipping at sea to inspect and report on potential labour abuse, and ensure human or electronic observer coverage across all tuna longline vessels it sources from. Much of the abuse that plagues fishing vessels takes place out of sight without authorities to report to.
Develop a comprehensive code of conduct for all vessels in its supply chains to help ensure workers at sea are being treated humanely and fairly, beginning in January 2018.
An audit will be conducted by an independent third party next year to measure progress, and in the meantime, we will all be watching and waiting for positive results.
Calling on other major tuna buyers
Thai Union cannot and should not be taking this on alone. Not only will the vessels catching the fish need to fully cooperate for these commitments to turn into real action and positive change, but all major buyers and sellers of tuna need to recognize that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Supporting more sustainable and socially responsible fisheries, particularly those that are small-scale, is an essential part of any sound tuna sourcing policy. Customers should not have to choose between bad or better, all tuna should be responsibly-caught to help address the oceans’ overfishing crisis.
Thai Union’s commitment is not the end of the story to transform the fishing industry, but the continuation of a growing movement to stop out of control companies from wreaking havoc on ocean ecosystems and people’s lives. We need to continue to hold companies accountable and all do our part to reduce the threats to our oceans.
Sarah King is the Senior Oceans Strategist at Greenpeace Canada.
Want to help protect our oceans and push for better tuna fisheries? Urge your favourite brand or supermarket to ensure it’s sourcing more responsibly-caught tuna, avoid brands poorly rated in Greenpeace’s tuna rankings, eat less tuna to help struggling populations to recover, and when in doubt, choose vegan “tuna”- yes, that’s a thing!
Help us take the fight to the rest of the seafood industry and support all of Greenpeace’s important campaign work at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/supportus/.
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We ♥ tuna.
We took on the world's largest tuna company, and together, moved them toward more sustainable, socially-responsible practices. Thanks to your actions, Thai Union has agreed to far-reaching reforms that will help protect workers at sea and reduce the impacts of destructive fishing.
The tuna industry remains out of control, but this win sends a signal to other companies to clean up their acts. We won't accept companies that break laws, exploit workers, and use indiscriminate fishing methods in the name of corporate greed.
Our oceans deserve better. Workers deserve better. We will continue fighting to ensure the seafood industry relinquishes its grip on our oceans.
Say less, do more: solving the world’s water woes
Why we can no longer afford to ignore global water problems
QUENTIN GRAFTON Share More Republish
DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY, GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNANCE, FOOD & WATER | AUSTRALIA, ASIA, THE WORLD
11 JULY 2017
Quentin Grafton takes a look at what it would cost to tackle the world’s water problems, and how The Geneva Actions on Human Water Security can help.
It is now more than 45 years since the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, and two years since the UN Secretary General released his score card on global achievements towards the Millennium Development Goals. Yet, every year more than one million people die from diarrhoea as a direct result of poor access to clean water and inadequate sanitation. More than half a million of these are children under the age of five years.
Most of the world’s rivers are polluted and are not suitable for direct human use. In many dry and semi-arid locations, water extractions from aquifers and rivers are growing at an unsustainable rate, jeopardising future food production.
Yet despite this challenge, water planning, management and governance is often ineffective and frequently fails to respond to human needs and environmental demands for water.
This is not just a water problem; it is a people problem, and it is a global problem. Indeed, the World Economic Forum consistently rates water security as one of the top global risks facing humanity. There are already 1.8 billion people living in basins and catchments with high water stress and, on present trends, will likely more than double by the 2050s.
Despite positive water access trends in some countries, there are still 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation, and some 700 million or more who lack access to safe drinking water. Extra efforts and additional funds are needed more than ever to transform how we use and conserve our precious water resources.
More on this:Implementing the human right to water
If nice words, laudable principles or good intentions solved water problems then all would be well in the world of water. But as with any real-world challenges, their solutions require meaningful actions and prioritisation. While collectively we may be able to do anything, we cannot do everything. We are obliged to make trade-offs and decisions about where our scarce funds and efforts should be placed. Investments in water security for the present and the future must be one of these global priorities.
Overcoming the problems of basic water needs, deteriorating water quality, inadequate water flows, and poor decision-making is necessary to resolve the most pressing water problems. Recognising the need and the priority to fund water actions, more than 50 water experts and practitioners from 22 different countries, including myself, have become Founding Signatories to the Geneva Actions on Human Water Security. We signed this ‘Magna Carta of Water’ on 7 July 2017 in Geneva, and in doing so have all committed to three global actions.
These actions are: firstly, to secure the delivery of basin water needs for people; secondly, to secure improvements in the condition of watersheds, streams, rivers and aquifers; and finally, to secure better water planning, management and governance.
Inspired by the Green Carbon Fund that was established by 194 governments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, the Founding Signatories to the Geneva Actions on Human Water Security categorically state that the world needs a Global Human Water Security Fund.
The funds needed for water are large globally, but trivial on an individual basis. For just one cent per person per day, the world could establish a Fund that would invest an additional US$27 billion per year in water actions to secure basic human water needs, improve watersheds and water quality, and deliver better water governance.
More on this:The complex relationship between urbanisation and water
This global investment is still less than a third of what is proposed for the Green Carbon Fund. It is also much less than current world water needs and what is required to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.’
The time for water actions is now. The risks of business as usual are much too high. We cannot continue to over-extract and misuse our water resources, nor is it acceptable to condemn a third of humanity to grossly inadequate access to clean water and sanitation. This is not sustainable. It is not right.
The alternative is to invest in water for people and water for the future. This is both affordable and feasible and can no longer remain a second or third order priority.
The world’s water challenges will not be fixed by good wishes or words alone. For the Founding Signatories of the Geneva Actions on Human Water Security the creation of a Global Water Fund to deliver on the Three Global Actions is fundamental to our common future.
As a child, I recall my father telling me: say less, do more. This should be a guide to resolve the world’s water problems. The Geneva Actions on Human Water Security is a statement of intent and one that the governments, civil society, the private sector, and all of us, need to back up with meaningful actions.
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About the Author
Quentin Grafton
R. Quentin Grafton FASSA is Professor of Economics, ANU Public Policy Fellow, Editor-in-Chief of the APPS Policy Forum, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy (CWEEP) at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University and Director of the Food, Energy, Environment and Water (FE2W) Network.
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