DGI Brief - June 30, 2016

Good morning, everyone. Today's top 5 news on global issues are about #NorthAmerica #Afghanistan #Vietnam #India and global #humanitarian appeals

- Currently, NORTH AMERICA gets only 37% of its energy from clean sources, despite Canada having a $3-bil surplus in electricity trade. The North American accord promises development of infrastructure to expand transmission lines across the continent. Presidents Obama, Pena Nieto & PM Trudeau – so called ‘Three Amigos summit” – also committed to ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement, and reduce greenhouse gases emissions including 40-45% cut in methane emissions from oil & gas industry. Fantastic step, that must immediately be followed by more. I know it sounds ungrateful, but we don’t have time for that conversation, we got to keep moving forward. Tick-tock.

- Taliban’s attack on a convoy of buses with Afghan police cadets is well calculated to sow fear in those who train to protect AFGHANISTAN from them. A very sad Ramadan.

- The new Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp. complex in VIETNAM conducted tests that released waste water containing phenol & cyanide into the sea, killing an estimated 70 tons of fish across 4 central provinces’ coastlines. Such environmental disaster can be an opportunity to attract technologically environmentally-friendly investment. What do you say, impact investors?

- Despite having top 50 quality of education system, staff training & job placement, INDIA’s ranks low in utilizing its human capital: only 57.7% (of 1.3 billion) is used, only 53.8% of 15+ are economically active, and employment of women is… well among the worst in the world.

- WORLD: The United Nations needs $21.6 billion to meet the needs of 95.4+ mil people across 40 countries. Only 25% of the appeals are funded. I’ll say it again – we are doing something wrong here. Our early warning systems are largely ignored by donors, leaving humanitarians at least 2 steps behind catastrophes majority of the time.

#USA #Canada #Mexico #Paris #climatechange #globalwarming #Parisagreement #threeamigossummit #summit #cleanenergy #greenenergy #emissions #greenhousegas #methane #carbon #carbonreduction #ozone #sustainability #Taliban #suicide #police #military #war #conflict #Taiwan #steel #environment #environmentaldisaster #water #waste #waterwaste #fisheries #livelihoods #pollution #compensation #CSR #responsibility #human #capital #index #humancapital #employment #unemployement #gendergap #womensrights #UnitedNations #global