Sea ice in the Arctic is melting at a record pace this year, suggesting warming at the north pole is speeding up and a largely ice-free Arctic can be expected in summer months within 30 years. The area of the Arctic ocean at least 15 per cent covered in ice is this week about 13.6 square kilometres - lower than the previous record low set in 2007 - according to satellite monitoring by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. In addition, new data from the University of Washington Polar Science Centre, shows that the thickness of Arctic ice this year is also the lowest on record.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

KPFA 94.1FM recently interviewed Desmond D'sa, chairperson of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa, who was on a visit to the United States ahead of the COP17 meeting scheduled for Durban in late 2011. D'sa described the key themes of his visit as exposing the greed of corporates and the destruction that they cause, emphasising the message that corporates can be challenged and tackled, and the importance of linking up local issues with national issues in South Africa.

The Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council to the OECD has declined to support an official communique on principles for internet policy-making, saying that it could undermine 'online freedom of expression, freedom of information, the right to privacy, access to knowledge, and innovation across the world.' Their concerns include the communiqué’s over-emphasis on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights at the expense of fundamental freedoms.

Thousands of Ethiopians in Afar State are facing critical food, water and health gaps almost a month after a volcano erupted in neighbouring Eritrea's Nabro region, officials say. The volcano started erupting on 12 June, spewing ash over hundreds of kilometres, affecting food and water sources as well as air travel in some parts. The eruption also caused an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7, Eritrea's Information Ministry reported in a communiqué.

'Smouldering Evidence', AfriCOG’s latest report, examines the Charterhouse Bank Scandal which has received much attention in the media recently and dates back several years. The report documents the scandal and analyses violations of law and criminal acts including money laundering and the curious flip-flopping of public officials, including the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, on the issue of whether the Bank should remain closed. This report is part of a series of studies explaining major corruption cases in order to raise public awareness and knowledge of corruption cases and the measures that can be taken to avoid them and seek accountability for their perpetration.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Africa remains at the mercy of a self-interested international ruling class interested purely in maximising profit at all costs and consolidating its position, writes Yash Tandon. As the continent faces up to the enormous challenge of climate change and the creation of a sustainable ‘green economy’, it must look inwards and draw upon its own expertise and resources and resist the temptation to rely on compromised external ‘experts’, Tandon stresses.

This Greenpeace report examines the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in many herbicides sold throughout the world, including the well-known formulation, Roundup. 'Glyphosate based herbicides are used widely for weed control because they are non-selective; glyphosate kills all vegetation. Glyphosate has been promoted as "safe". However, mounting scientific evidence questions the safety of glyphosate and its most well known formulation, Roundup. The evidence detailed in this report demonstrates that glyphosate-based products can have adverse impacts on human and animal health, and that a review of their safety for human and animal health is urgently needed. The widespread and increasingly intensive use of glyphosate in association with the use of GM (genetically modified, also called genetically engineered or GE) crops poses further risks to the environment and human health.'

Child marriage is increasingly recognised as a serious problem, both as a violation of girls’ human rights and as a hindrance to key development outcomes. As more resources and action are committed to addressing this problem, it becomes important to examine past efforts and how well they have worked. This International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) report summarises a systematic review of child marriage prevention programs that have documented evaluations. Based on this synthesis of evaluated programs, the authors offer an analysis of the broader implications for viable solutions to child marriage.

The ‘global coalition’ is ultimately a mere front for the dominance of Western economic and political interests over genuine democratisation for the peoples of Africa, writes Zaya Yeebo.

Global greenhouse gas emissions rose faster than ever last year and the market-based schemes set up to bring emissions down are in trouble. That’s the bad news from two recent reports by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank. The IEA said emissions in 2010 were five per cent higher than 2008, the previous highest year. It estimated that about 44 per cent of the emissions came from coal, 36 per cent from oil and 20 per cent from natural gas. It also said 80 per cent of projected emissions from energy generation in 2020 'are already locked in as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today'.

When it comes to the politics of international law, ‘[t]he case of Libya is a reminder that power matters, as does who wields it and why,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.

The presidents of China and Sudan have cemented economic ties between their countries during a state visit by Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese leader, to Beijing. China is a major buyer of Sudanese crude oil, and is keen to ensure the partition of Sudan into two states will not descend into fighting that could disrupt supplies and damage Beijing's stake on both sides of the new border.

The number of clinical trials in developing countries has surged in recent years but the legal and ethical frameworks to make them fair are often not in place, the 7th World Conference of Science Journalists, in Qatar (27–29 June), heard. By 2008, for example, there were three times as many developing countries participating in clinical trials registered with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) than there were in the entire period between 1948 and 2000, with many 'transitional' countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, taking part.

There are 245 million widows in the world, yet their problems are often ignored, states this article in The Guardian UK on the occasion of International Widows Day on 23 June. 115 million widows still live in extreme poverty. In many cases, their children have to leave school to go to work to plug the gap in the household income left by their father's death; their daughters, in particular, are therefore often at a high risk of sexual exploitation.

A new analysis of the global power plant market launched by Greenpeace International shows that since the 1990s, installations of wind and solar grew faster than any other power plant technology. In addition, renewable energy expanded rapidly, to reach its biggest market share in 2010 and providing enough capacity to supply electricity to the equivalent of one third of Europe. The Greenpeace report, 'The Silent Energy Revolution: 20 Years in the Making', also highlights how renewable energy power plants accounted for more than a quarter (26 per cent) of all new power plants added to the worldwide electricity grid over the past decade, compared to nuclear power stations representing just two per cent of new installations in the same period.

In order to meet the intensifying climate challenge, the global energy system must undergo a fundamental transformation, with a rapid increase of renewable energy worldwide, states this working paper. 'Developing countries are at the forefront of this challenge, since they are expected to add around 80 per cent of all new electric generation capacity worldwide in the next two decades...This working paper seeks to assist in this process, by identifying key components of smart renewable energy policy in developing countries, focusing on the power sector.'

We are not all in this together, begins this article in the UK's The Guardian newspaper. 'The UK economy is flat, the US is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world's wealthiest people are getting more prosperous - and more numerous - by the day. The globe's richest have now recouped the losses they suffered after the 2008 banking crisis. They are richer than ever, and there are more of them - nearly 11 million - than before the recession struck.'

In the context of corporate government corruption, one of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy, says this AlterNet article. 'Many of the WikiLeaks US embassy cables reveal the naked intervention by our ambassadorial staff in the business of foreign countries on behalf of US corporations. From mining companies in Peru to pharmaceutical companies in Ecuador, one WikiLeaks embassy cable after the next illuminates a pattern of US diplomats shilling for corporate interests abroad in the most underhanded and sleazy ways imaginable.'