Asian Insider Ep 76: Citizens should push politicians and companies on climate crisis and vaccine inequity, says UNDP head

17:12 mins

Synopsis: Each month, The Straits Times' US bureau chief Nirmal Ghosh presents an Asian perspective of the week's global talking points with expert guests.

The climate crisis and the Covid pandemic's global vaccine inequity were the two main issues on the agenda at the just-concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by the United States and China.

In this episode, Nirmal Ghosh hosts the head of United Nations Development Programme - Achim Steiner - who's based in New York City. The Human Development Index was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.

They discuss the following points:

1. Did events at the recent United Nations General Assembly by the United States and China show there is concrete progress towards solving the climate crisis (1:04)
2. How Steiner assesses the state of the world in terms of vaccine equity globally (3:45)
3. Why there is a drop in the UNDP's Human Development Index for the first time in 30 years (5:45)
4. Why citizens must make their voices heard by politicians and companies that depend on them (7:42)
5. Why in 2021 - across most of the world - renewable energy today is cheaper per kilowatt hour than any other fossil fuel-based energy generation (12:27)

Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg) and Ernest Luis

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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