Trade : US & allies adopt "diversionary" tactics to block TRIPS waiver (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
Despite the rapidly worsening COVID-19 pandemic as well as growing concerns over the so-called "us and them" framework being adopted for access to new vaccines, the United States and its allies seem to have adopted "diversionary" tactics to block the passage of a waiver sought by many developing countries for suspending several provisions of the WTO's TRIPS Agreement to address the pandemic, trade negotiators told the SUNS.

Opinion : Keeping climate ambition alive (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington DC)
For those of us in the international climate action community, 2020 isn't ending the way we expected when we rang in the new year. Even before 2020 dawned, countries were hard at work planning for their first updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the Paris Agreement's five-year NDC revision cycle.

Opinion : Persons with disabilities among worst affected by COVID-19 (PRIV)
(IPS, Kathmandu)
The 13th session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) that was initially supposed to be held in New York back in June recently wrapped up with the final session coinciding with the International Day of People with Disabilities, whose theme, this year was on the issue of building back better inclusively.