Last week the Government of Canada filed a 2,100-page submission with the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCOLS), states with coastal territory have the exclusive rights to about 370 kilometers beyond their shores in order to conduct economic activity. This includes the exclusive rights to any resources. However, states may also make claims to further extensions underneath the water if they can substantiate them through scientific research. Last week's submission attempts to do exactly that for an additional 1.2 million square kilometers of sea bed.
Last week the Government of Canada filed a 2,100-page submission with the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCOLS), states with coastal territory have the exclusive rights to about 370 kilometers beyond their shores in order to conduct economic activity. This includes the exclusive rights to any resources. However, states may also make claims to further extensions underneath the water if they can substantiate them through scientific research. Last week's submission attempts to do exactly that for an additional 1.2 million square kilometers of sea bed.
The challenge with all of this is that Norway, Denmark, and Russia all have their own continental shelf claims, and there's geographic overlap. (The US has not yet ratified their UNCOLS agreement.) So it is unlikely for this to be resolved anytime soon, though all states seem willing to work with the UN. This is a relatively new debate because the North Pole and Arctic Ocean were previously considered neutral territory. But climate change is opening up new economic opportunities (i.e. there's a lot less ice). That's worrisome in its own right.
Click here for the full press release from the Government of Canada.
To give you an example, for gross national income per capita (standard of living), the minimum is $100 and the maximum is $75,000. (Logic behind these numbers,
Once you know the boundaries, you then use this formula for each dimension:
Dimension Index = (Actual Value - Minimum Value) / (Maximum Value - Minimum Value)
Each of the individual dimension indices are then aggregated together to create that country’s HDI.
In 2017, the country with the highest HDI was Norway at 0.953. Brazil, which is what got me started thinking about this, was at 0.759. So not quite developed.
Canada and the US were on top of each other at 0.926 and 0.924, respectively.
This morning I woke up to an email from the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. They are a public consortium dedicated to urban sustainability and made up of the City Council of Barcelona, the Municipal Council and Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, and the Barcelona Provincial Council. The email was about this upcoming “urban congress” taking place in Barcelona from May 22-24:
Sadly, I have no plans to be in Barcelona next month. But if any of you are based or traveling there, the conference is all about the future challenges that cities will face and about contributing to the new urban agenda. The main topics are: sustainability, city planning, social cohesion, and competitiveness.
Habitat III – which is in the title of the conference – was a United Nations conference on housing and sustainable urbanization. It took place in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. However, it forms part of a much larger framework around sustainable global development. More info here.
Barcelona is also one of my favorite cities, so I am happy to share this one with all of you. If you’d like to register for Post-Habitat III, head over here.
The challenge with all of this is that Norway, Denmark, and Russia all have their own continental shelf claims, and there's geographic overlap. (The US has not yet ratified their UNCOLS agreement.) So it is unlikely for this to be resolved anytime soon, though all states seem willing to work with the UN. This is a relatively new debate because the North Pole and Arctic Ocean were previously considered neutral territory. But climate change is opening up new economic opportunities (i.e. there's a lot less ice). That's worrisome in its own right.
Click here for the full press release from the Government of Canada.
To give you an example, for gross national income per capita (standard of living), the minimum is $100 and the maximum is $75,000. (Logic behind these numbers,
Once you know the boundaries, you then use this formula for each dimension:
Dimension Index = (Actual Value - Minimum Value) / (Maximum Value - Minimum Value)
Each of the individual dimension indices are then aggregated together to create that country’s HDI.
In 2017, the country with the highest HDI was Norway at 0.953. Brazil, which is what got me started thinking about this, was at 0.759. So not quite developed.
Canada and the US were on top of each other at 0.926 and 0.924, respectively.
This morning I woke up to an email from the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. They are a public consortium dedicated to urban sustainability and made up of the City Council of Barcelona, the Municipal Council and Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, and the Barcelona Provincial Council. The email was about this upcoming “urban congress” taking place in Barcelona from May 22-24:
Sadly, I have no plans to be in Barcelona next month. But if any of you are based or traveling there, the conference is all about the future challenges that cities will face and about contributing to the new urban agenda. The main topics are: sustainability, city planning, social cohesion, and competitiveness.
Habitat III – which is in the title of the conference – was a United Nations conference on housing and sustainable urbanization. It took place in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. However, it forms part of a much larger framework around sustainable global development. More info here.
Barcelona is also one of my favorite cities, so I am happy to share this one with all of you. If you’d like to register for Post-Habitat III, head over here.
