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Why Clean Energy Is Center Stage on International Day of Peace
Each year since 1981, the United Nations (UN) recognizes an International Day of Peace on September 21. The day is intended to strengthen peace both within and among nations.

As an environmental advocate, I can't help but think about the effects of climate change on the current state of global peace. And while there are a few climate deniers out there, those who have looked at the science are saying climate change poses a serious threat to global security and peace.

Fortunately, the UN agrees - which is why they chose to focus this year's International Peace Day on Sustainable Development Goals. Unanimously adopted by all 193 UN member states, the Sustainable Development Goals are broken down into 17 focus areas and are part of a broader agenda to fight inequality, injustice, and climate change by 2030.

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Goal 7 - "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all" - is a hugely important part of fostering global peace. The world needs affordable, reliable electricity to heat, cool, and power our homes, and to encourage economic growth. But we also need this electricity to be clean, modern, and efficient, so it doesn't pollute our communities and exacerbate climate change.

Here are four ways the U.S. is doing our part to achieve an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy system for all:

Affordability: In rural, poverty-persistent parts of the country, energy efficiency is the most direct way to save people money and reduce energy use, but it is often overlooked when families face hard choices about where to spend their money. On-bill financing is one solution that's helping Americans finance energy efficiency upgrades without the burden of upfront costs. Upgrades are paid for over time (via utility bills) from the resulting energy savings of efficiency improvements. The program reduces energy use and saves people money, which is especially important in rural communities where median household incomes are shrinking compared to their urban and suburban counterparts. In North Carolina, non-profits like Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and electric cooperatives (or "co-ops," which supply power to 42 million Americans in rural areas) are partnering to expand on-bill financing.
Reliability: Electricity touches everything we do. So when the grid goes down, the effects can range anywhere from inconvenient to life-threatening. With the help of smart meters, which now exist in nearly half of U.S. households and deliver detailed energy-use data to utilities, we can begin to identify outages faster and with great precision (meaning shorter outages). Smart meters can also enable energy management tools like demand response - which pays people to reduce energy when the electric grid is stressed - that can help improve reliability and reduce outages. New York recently approved an historic plan by its largest utility to distribute smart meters to millions of homes. This move will help increase efficiency, improve reliability, and lower pollution.
Sustainability: An estimated 12.6% of U.S. energy use is water-related. That's equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 40 million Americans. Ensuring a sustainable future means addressing the way we manage our electricity and our water - part of what's known as the "energy-water nexus." Based in Austin, Texas, Pecan Street, Inc., the nation's largest energy research network and an EDF partner, is studying and piloting some of the same strategies that are helping the energy sector get smart. Just like smart energy meters, smart water meters can help residents conserve resources by giving them access to meaningful data about when and how they use water. By saving water, we can save energy, too, which means fewer polluting power plants.
Modernity: A key aspect of modern energy is that it should be accessible to all. While the price of solar panels has fallen 80 percent since 2008, many Americans reside in multi-unit buildings, or don't own a home on which to install solar panels. But the solar game is changing and new models are emerging. Community solar, defined as "a solar-electric system that provides power and/or financial benefit to, or is owned by, multiple community members," presents a unique opportunity to bring solar access to the masses. Cities like Los Angeles, California and San Antonio, Texas are actively working to expand community solar. And nationally, community solar is predicted to more than double between 2015 and 2016.

Global consensus

These examples reveal the new look of energy in America. Other nations are making clean energy progress, too, though their circumstances vary. For example, in Lesotho, Southern Africa, clean energy sometimes looks like solar panels on homes in rural areas that can't be reached by vehicles. In Chennai, India, clean energy can be seen in the solar steam cooking system in a home-school for 650 orphans.

Yet, despite regional differences, this International Day of Peace - with Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy at center stage - reminds us that around the world, efforts to nurture a safer, more prosperous future are cut from the same cloth. It's also a reminder that the world agrees with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's message: "Affordable, clean energy is the golden thread that links economic growth, increased social equity, and a healthy environment."

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or, officially, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"). The SDGs represent an historic agreement -- a wide-ranging roadmap to sustainability covering 17 goals and 169 targets -- but stakeholders must also be held accountable for their commitments. To see all the posts in the series, visit here.

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How to Save the UN

One of the reasons that I chose to run for the position of United Nations Secretary General is that I could see the interconnected nature of many of the crises that the world faces today. While I have now withdrawn from the race, I was and remain, full of hope that when we treat them as interrelated issues and work to address their root causes, we can all win.

One of the key crises will be discussed at a UN Summit this week. The crisis is that today we live in a world where 65 million people have been forced from their homes -- more than at any time since the end of the Second World War. Media images of streams of people walking away from their homes have become commonplace over the last 18 months. The heartbreaking stories of those who have lost their lives as they fled the desperate situations in their homelands have lasting implications long after they have left the front pages.

It is anticipated that this week's UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants will seek to better protect migrants and refugees during their perilous journeys, and while this is vital, it will count for little unless we deal with the reasons why people are having to leave.

The UN acknowledges that the international community has been "struggling for years to find better ways to resolve violent conflicts in many parts of the world and to mitigate the impact of climate change and disasters. Alleviating extreme poverty, food insecurity, lack of decent work, inequality, tackling discrimination and human-rights violations and abuses, establishing rule of law, mitigating the impact of disasters and climate change are all massive tasks."

Yet these tasks that are already described as 'massive' are getting bigger. With temperature records being broken month by month, the impacts that climate change has had on conflict and refugees in places like Syria and Mali will only grow. With sea-level rise advancing more quickly than scientists predicted, those communities in the South Pacific and in Alaska who have already been forced to move will be joined by many more. Though climate is not the only factor impacting the choices being made by these people, it is a real and growing danger.

The incumbent UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will leave a legacy of working to reform the UN to break down the institutional silos that slow us down when we respond to such crises. He will leave a legacy of having put frameworks in place -- such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement -- that can help address some of the 'massive tasks'.

But this important work needs to be sped up and increased, for example, by incorporating an understanding of climate risk into everything that the UN does. This would ensure that over the longer term we understand better where the hot spots are and how to help prevent system breakdown. It would also give teeth to the conclusions of the inaugural World Humanitarian Summit held earlier this year.

Though I have worked at the heart of the UN for years, I have learnt a lot more about the institution and its peculiar brand of realpolitik over the course of the past few months. It is more clear to me than ever that UN is on the verge of a precipice.

Its next leader -- and there are strong candidates in this race -- has the responsibility to ensure the UN delivers on those groundbreaking agreements made last year, which would see us effectively address poverty, better protect people in their own homes, and create more possibilities of peace. To do in fact what the UN was created to do. But the UN can only do that if it eschews the turf wars and patronage that weakens its ability to do its job properly.

We cannot afford a world without the UN. But the UN must continue to evolve so that it is up to the challenges of the 21^st century.

I urge the Security Council to avoid the path of least resistance, I urge them to push for transformation. Though it might seem more difficult at first, this is how we deliver on our promises and put the organisation on a strong footing for the next 70 years, one that will serve the many millions that have already been forced from their homes and those who still live in fear. Don't choose politics, choose the right person for the job.

Ms. Figueres is the top UN authority on global climate change. She was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) between July 2010 and July 2016. Assuming responsibility for the international climate change negotiations after the failed Copenhagen conference of 2009, she was successful in leading the process to a universally agreed regulatory action framework.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of two critical conferences at the UN on the Refugee and Migrant crisis: the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants (Sept. 19th, a UN conference) and the Leaders Summit on Refugees (Sept. 20th, hosted by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, at the UN). To see all the posts in the series, visit here. To follow the conversation on Twitter, see #UN4RefugeesMigrants.

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More countries to formally join Paris Agreement next week
After international agreements are finalized it often takes years for countries to formally join the agreement and for the agreement to take effect. It took the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change almost two years after it was adopted for that agreement to enter-into-force. On September 21st, a next wave of countries is expected to formally join the Paris Agreement and signal their commitment to continue to act now and deliver stronger climate action in the coming years.

As a result, there is a high likelihood that the Paris Agreement will enter into force this year - less than a year after the agreement was adopted. This would represent rocket speed as most international agreements take at least two years to enter into force. This is a fantastic signal that countries around the world are preparing to take the necessary actions to address climate change and protect our children and grandchildren from the devastation that will occur if we don't act aggressively. More action will be needed, but the early signs are positive given the pace at which countries formally entered into the agreement.

World is on the cusp of the Paris Agreement entering into force

To date, twenty-seven countries accounting for thirty-nine percent of the world's emissions have formally joined the Paris Agreement. A number of countries - such as Brazil and Mexico - have taken the required domestic steps to join the agreement but haven't yet officially become members of the agreement as they have to "deposit" the official paperwork with the U.N. Officials have recently said that they expect twenty additional countries will formally join the agreement when countries meet on September 21st for a ceremony in New York. This next wave will mean that at least 47 countries that account for over forty-five percent of the world's emissions will have formally joined the agreement by September 21st (see table below).

And more have publicly announced that they will formally join the agreement this year including a number of major emitters such as Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. European Union leaders just signaled that they will try to formally join this year, maybe even by early October. With these countries sixty-four countries that account for almost 72 percent of the world's emissions are expected to have formally joined the Paris Agreement this year. That would mean that the agreement would enter into force this year as it only requires 55 countries that account for 55 percent of the world's emissions for the agreement to take effect (see figure).

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Rocket speed for an international agreement to enter into force

Translating international agreements into international law usually takes years. As one U.N. official recently said: "it usually takes years, decades and sometimes never to cross these thresholds for entry into force". The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change took almost two years to cross those thresholds, the Kyoto Protocol took over seven years, and the Montreal Protocol took a year and half. As the New York Times pointed out: "Experts in international law said they could not think of an example of a major United Nations agreement entering into legal force less than a year after it was finalized".

The quick pace could signal that world leaders want to be remembered as being on the right side of history. After all, when the history books are written for the 21st Century, which leader wants to be known as the last one to join an agreement to address the gravest challenge of this century? I doubt the history books will look fondly on that blank chapter in a leader's story: "Chapter 12 - Didn't join historic agreement to address climate change".

Hard work ahead after agreement takes effect

Once the Paris Agreement enters into force countries will have to provide further details on some of the implementation rulebooks and then evolve the system to take on new dynamics over time. And most importantly, countries will have to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work of policymaking to drive their economies towards a low carbon and climate resilient future. Countries have a solid base to build upon as they have more advanced clean energy policies, new steps on deforestation, and more tools to spur energy efficiency.

We need more action, faster. So let's hope that the quick entry-into-force is a sign that countries are prepared to take even more decisive domestic action in the coming years.

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Disease prevention in urban areas: EU cities can be a hub of health promotion
Last June, I was having a public discussion with citizens in Eindhoven, Netherlands, together with Mary-Ann Schreurs, the Vice-Mayor of the city. I hold those dialogues regularly, in different EU Member States, on the issues that I am in charge of at the European Commission level - health and food safety but also broader European topics. These public discussions are never easy but I appreciate the exercise. It brings food for thought and gives birth to interesting ideas.

That day in Eindhoven, a young woman told me: we all know that prevention is better than cure and preventing people from getting sick should therefore be the obvious goal, but my son's school has two vending machines full of sugary drinks and fatty foods that are easily accessible to him. I can do little to control what he is buying with his pocket money. Aren't we in a major contradiction - we expect our kids to eat healthy but we make sugar and fat easily available and cheap in the places where they spend most of their time without us?

She is right. Add marketing and advertising and you have the recipe for a whole generation of children growing fat for life. Add the ageing population and rise in chronic diseases - many of which could be prevented if we tackled risk factors and promoted healthy habits - and you can be sure that no healthcare system in the world will be able to cope with resultant costs. I will never tire repeating that prevention and promotion are key if we want to change this catastrophic forecast. Where better to put these in place if not in urban areas given that we estimate that by 2020, almost 80% of EU citizens will be living in cities?

In the EU, we have already started sowing the seeds. Several pan-european initiatives are underway to improve quality of life in our cities. For example, the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities, aims to improve urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions such as including pedestrian zones and cycle paths in city planning to encourage people to move more.

The EU Health Programme and the European Parliament co-finance various projects with an urban angle that promote healthier diets to children, adults and elderly citizens. These projects are part of a wider, multi-faceted approach to tackling obesity, poor nutrition and inactivity.

Since 2007, the European Commission is working on initiatives across various policy areas to promote good health and reduce the risks associated with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. For example, the school fruit scheme provides school children with fruit and vegetables, encouraging school children to replace sugary snacks with healthier options.

In addition, the 2014 Action Plan on Childhood obesity aims to halt the rise of childhood obesity by 2020. The plan includes promoting healthier diets in school and pre-school, and making the healthy option the easy option, amongst its objectives. In parallel, the Commission is working together with Member States on the common objective of reformulating food products to contain less salt, fats or sugars. The aim of our work in that field is to help ensure that healthier food is available and affordable to all across the European Union.

We also have two interesting EU-financed projects which are currently being tested in urban settings. "Together" and "We Love Eating" both benefit from the multiplier effect of community action within cities.

A healthy lifestyle starts from the earliest age, and the Together pilot project promotes healthy diets to pregnant and breastfeeding women in Manchester, Murcia, Odense and Kolding, Prague and Varna. "Together" makes a special effort to address health inequalities by reaching out to young mothers, women on lower incomes and ethnic minorities - as these are groups that do not always benefit from equal access to health promotion initiatives. The project involves diverse community actors such as social workers, midwives, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, to ensure that it brings about real, sustainable change.

We Love Eating further promotes healthy eating amongst three main target groups: children, pregnant women and older people, in seven small cities across the EU, such as, Bradford, Roncq, Granollers and Cluj-Napoca. We Love Eating aims to teach people to enjoy healthy food, it encourages conscious eating and more physical activity in daily life, and offers realistic and fun ways to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Once again, this community-based project makes a special effort to address people from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Indeed, many people in the EU are not able to afford quality food and suffer the negative health effects of under nutrition. Since around 88 million tonnes of food is wasted in the EU every year, there is no excuse for any of our citizens going hungry. Preventing food waste is a moral and ethical obligation, I wrote about this earlier and you can read it here I am sure that the question raised that day, in Eindhoven, is topical for many parents. That woman is certainly not alone wanting to prevent her son growing fat for life. But more we raise these questions and discussions around the issue, the more aware our citizens become. A few months after our discussion, the Vice-Mayor initiated a project called 'Health Deal' where neighbouring cities come together to exchange knowledge, insights and build partnerships that put health in the core of urban development.

EU cities have the potential to be hubs of health promotion. The more EU cities work together and learn from each other, the more we can all benefit from targeted, sustainable community action that brings together businesses, activists, charities, schools, mums, dads, midwives, chefs, children and older citizens - to promote healthy diets and physical activity and to ensure that good food fills the stomachs of people in need rather than our dustbins.

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The Nordic food journey
The days when Nordic food was viewed as nothing but heavy, meat-based stews are long gone. Today Nordic food is associated with simplicity, sustainability, and seasonality. How did this come to be, and how can this way of thinking be used to address the challenges of nutrition, climate, and urban development?

The UN General Assembly is underway in New York, and as part of a prominent line-up of speakers, I will discuss the global challenges of urban food systems at EATx UNGA. I believe that a Nordic approach is highly relevant to targeting these global issues.

It all started in 2004, with cooperation between creative Nordic chefs and innovators wishing to change the Nordic food culture, an initiative supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers, among others. The result has been a radical change to the Nordic food scene.

A decade later, we are witnessing a striking trickle-down effect in the way people look upon food in Nordic cities. A genuine and holistic new Nordic everyday diet is taking shape - a diet in which both nutrition and sustainability play important roles. I believe that this is an important democratisation of good and sustainable food in the Nordic countries.

This new Nordic everyday diet resonates with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (first established in 1980) - a common set of Nordic recommendations accompanied by Nordic nutritional monitoring. These are tools that help policymakers implement food policies such as nutritional guidelines and front-of-pack labelling, as well as to establish strong trust-based partnerships among governments, NGOs and the food industry.

As is the case in most of the world, the Nordic countries have not been able to completely stop the epidemic of overweight and malnutrition. However, compared to most other developed countries, we have managed to slow down the rise in overweight and obesity and are showing some important signs of improvements in diet. I'm convinced that the nutrition recommendations play an important part in this.

Consequently, this new Nordic Food Movement - although not so new any longer - together with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations are important parts of the Nordic approach to the challenge of sustainable urban food systems.

Another important part of the democratization process are the approximately 5.5 million meals that are served daily from more than 55,000 public kitchens in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, since July 1st, 2011 it has been written into the Education Act that all school meals should be nutritious. In Copenhagen, 90% of the ingredients in all public meals are organic. Oslo and other Nordic cities also have ambitious goals with respect to organic public meals.

The Nordic Food Movement has turned out to be a driver for change as well as a policy tool. Through the energy and entrepreneurship of their citizens, cities can bring radical - and sustainable - change to our food systems. These examples from the Nordic Region highlight how cities can be engines for transforming food culture, and thus the food systems of whole regions.

But the Nordic Food Journey is far from over. We will continue to democratize good food in the Nordic countries by strengthening Nordic co-operation between agents of change.

We are now - in co-operation with EAT - establishing a Nordic Cities EAT Initiative. The Nordic cities have recently all started prioritizing food policy. We will help the cities learn from each other, discover new solutions, and continue the dialogue on the Nordic experience with a global audience. In the years to come, this will be carried out as part of the Nordic Council of Ministers' Prime Minister Initiative on Nordic solutions to global challenges.

Dagfinn Høybråten
Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers

Links:
Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012: Integrating nutrition and physical activity

New Nordic Food

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and the EAT Foundation, in conjunction with the high-level side event, "Urban Food Systems: The Nutrition Challenge," during the 71st United Nations General Assembly in New York. The EATx at UNGA is a collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. #EATx #eatforum

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AFL-CIO To Planet Earth: Drop Dead
At a meeting with the deputy political director of the AFL-CIO during my campaign for Congress, she looked across her desk and told me that I could get major union support by coming out in favor of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

That was five years ago. Since then, the nation's biggest labor federation has continued to serve the fossil fuel industry. Call it union leadership for a dead planet.

Last week, the AFL-CIO put out a statement from its president, Richard Trumka, under the headline "Dakota Access Pipeline Provides High-Quality Jobs." The rhetoric was standard flackery for energy conglomerates, declaring "it is fundamentally unfair to hold union members' livelihoods and their families' financial security hostage to endless delay."

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is steadfast against the Dakota Access pipeline: "We will not rest until our lands, people, waters, and sacred sites are permanently protected from this destructive pipeline."

In sharp contrast to the AFL-CIO's top echelon, some unions really want to restrain climate change and are now vocally opposing the Dakota pipeline.

Communications Workers of America has expressed solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "as they fight to protect their community, their land and their water supply."

At National Nurses United, Co-President Jean Ross cites "an obligation to step up climate action to protect public health and the future for the generations to follow us."

Ross said: "We commend the leaders and members of the Standing Rock Sioux, the many First Nation allies who have joined them, and the environmentalists and other supporters who have participated in the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline."

NNU points out that "the proposed 1,172-mile pipeline would carry nearly a half million barrels of dirty crude oil every day across four states." Ross says that such projects "pose a continual threat to public health from the extraction process through the transport to the refinery."

As for the AFL-CIO's support for the pipeline, NNU's director of environmental health and social justice was blunt. "We're deeply disappointed in our labor federation siding with those that would endanger and harm the land, the water, the lives of the people along the pipeline path and the health of the planet itself in the name of profits," Fernando Losada said.

He added that the Dakota pipeline is part of "a drive to extract fossil fuel that is untenable for the future of the planet."

The nurses union is part of the AFL-CIO, but dominant forces within the federation are committed to corporate energy priorities. Losada said that "some elements in the AFL-CIO" have caused a stance that "is a narrow position in the alleged interests of their members for some short-term jobs."

Compare that narrow position to a recent statement from Communications Workers of America: "The labor movement is rooted in the simple and powerful idea of solidarity with all struggles for dignity, justice and respect. CWA will continue to fight against the interests of the 1% and corporate greed and firmly stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the environmental and cultural degradation of their community."

A venerable labor song has a question for the leaders of the AFL-CIO: Which side are you on?

When it comes to planetary survival, the answer from the top of the AFL-CIO hierarchy remains: We're on the wrong side.

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World Leaders Have An Historic Opportunity To Support Migrants And Refugees
Two years ago, I traveled to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. I met a Syrian refugee family there who had recently fled Raqqa. Unable to find regular work, the family was depending on the labor of their 12-year-old daughter, who was working in the fields. The family and this young girl herself would have preferred her to be in school.

The Bekaa Valley is among the areas hardest hit by the refugee crisis. Two years ago, when I was there, some 770 informal tented settlements had sprung up and the valley was home to more than 410,000 refugees. These numbers have largely stayed the same.

Today, more people are forcibly displaced from their homes than at any time since the end of the World War II. A recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, estimated that 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just a year earlier. Measured against the world's population of 7.4 billion people, one in every 113 people globally is now either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee. This tally is greater than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

In some cases, people are fleeing from poverty and lack of opportunity. In others, people are fleeing from conflict and lawlessness. Many millions need international support.

The Syria crisis has caused serious displacement -- 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees, and 6.5 million are displaced. This is the largest displacement crisis globally.

Many Syrians have fled to neighboring countries that are now hosting large numbers of these refugees. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees number roughly a quarter of the population. In Jordan, the number is estimated at about one in five people. Turkey hosts more than two million Syrians and Iraqis. The host countries and communities need international support too.

The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework within which to respond to these large movements of people. The U.N. Summit for Refugees and Migrants convening this week in New York provides a unique opportunity for world leaders to come up with a blueprint for a strong international response to their needs.

What could be done to prevent displacement crises in future?

First, the international community should place conflict prevention and mediation at the center of international peace and security efforts. Early warning and response systems are needed for when tensions emerge and to foster reconciliation.

Second, international support is needed to strengthen good governance and the rule of law and to address structural inequalities. Promoting inclusive economic growth and sustainable livelihoods is critical for building peaceful and inclusive societies. These are long-term investments that are also critical structural prevention efforts.

Third, development actors can assist governments to improve their capacity for data collection and analysis on the root causes of displacement caused by poverty and lack of opportunity, to help design sustainable responses.

The organization I head, the United Nations Development Program, will play its part. We provide support for host communities and help countries anticipate and prevent future crises. We promote inclusive and accountable institutions which can improve social cohesion, and drive inclusive development. We work to tackle inequalities and to improve access to justice and to basic services like education and health.

Going forward, the UNDP will work to ensure that the inclusion of migration and displacement issues are priorities during the implementation of the SDGs. The UNDP will also support at least 30 program countries over the next five years to analyze and address the drivers of migration and of forced displacement. And we will work with partners to build evidence and gather data around migration and displacement. More needs to be known about the development impact of displacement in countries of origin and in host countries and communities.

This week, world leaders have an historic opportunity to address this issue and come together in a spirit of shared responsibility for the world's refugees and migrants. Let's remember those refugee children sent out to work instead of being able to go to school, and resolve to see that their needs are met.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of two critical conferences at the UN on the Refugee and Migrant crisis: the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants (Sept. 19th, a UN conference) and the Leaders Summit on Refugees (Sept. 20th, hosted by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, at the UN). To see all the posts in the series, visit here. To follow the conversation on Twitter, see #UN4RefugeesMigrants.

Also on WorldPost:

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GLOBAL EXPERT: Miami Beach Naled Pesticide Spraying Ineffective Against Zika Virus Carrying Mosquitos

Miami Beach has been spraying the toxic chemical Naled frequently as the Zika virus outbreak covering South Beach has spread north to encompass two-thirds of the island city.

Global expert Dr. Michael Callahan says that it's not only an ineffective strategy to combat the aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the tropical disease he termed “dengue fever light,” but it may be counterproductive by wiping out predators who might eat carrier mosquitos.

In an extended video interview with Dr. Richard Perlmutter (below), Dr. Callahan, who is the co-founder of the Zika Foundation explained that our officials are implementing a mosquito control plan appropriate for West Nile disease, but isn't likely to tamp down Miami Beach's public health problems:

We can tell you what hasn't worked in the past with aerial spraying with this mosquito. There's been a lot of money wasted in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan and several Central American countries, trying to control aedes aegypti with aerial spraying. It does not work. It is an indoor resident. About 60-70 of our total community population is indoors and it is not flying around at night when the aerial spraying controls. What you see in Florida is the adaptive plan for West Nile mosquito... Aerial spraying with naled or many of the other insecticides have been proven systematically to be less effective. For aedes aegypti you need on the ground spray, houses and yards and absolutely control breeding sites by getting rid of standing water.

The Harvard-based Dr. Callahan has practiced on roughly over 2,000 Zika patients over the years around the world.

Until 2013, there was no history of pregnancy-related illness linked to Zika Virus, and it was considered more of a children's disease.

Dr. Callahan explained that in Brazil, children are taught the following ‘nursery rhyme' (there is no other way for me to describe this) which helps explain to that vulnerable population how the aedes aegypti mosquito:

Black and white, indoor bite, silent flight and you're safe at night.

The aedes aegypti mosquito is known for its black and white stripes. They like to find their way indoors, so regular use of repellant is a must.

The zika virus carrying mosquitos do not make significant noise, but the good news is that they generally do not bite during the night time either.

Additionally, Dr. Callahan explained that lemon eucalyptus repellant is a safe, natural product to use for protection against bites, for example Repel Eucalyptus which runs under $5 per bottle on Amazon.

The aedes aegypti mosquito prefers to bite on the back of the neck, though more than 65 percent of bites come below the knees as you can see below the video in a graphic by the Zika Foundation.

The doctor indicated that Zika vaccine is not only unlikely, but could carry even more significant medical risks than a regular transmission of the virus, no doctor could ethically rush one into production during an outbreak either.

Prevention of transmission is the most effective treatment today and for the foreseeable future.

“It is a highly visual public health intervention. It helps to promote a lot of trust that things are being done. But I am emphatic about this... for this mosquito and for this problem you need yard to yard control .

“That aerial spraying does a disservice by wiping out mosquito eating insects,” opined the world's foremost Zika virus expert, “in some parts of the world, they count for 20 percent of the predation of the aedes mosquito.”

The Miami Beach City Commission voted last week ― after two weeks of intense protests which made national and global news ― to urge higher government officials to end Naled spraying and implement an alternative to the chemical banned in the EU since 2012.

Interestingly, Miami's Wynwood neighborhood only had one single spraying with Naled, which also led to protests and then immediate cessation of the organophosphate neurotoxin aerial spraying.

Barring a last-minute surprise, Wynwood is expected to be removed from travel warnings today, after going 45 days without a new, local infection.

Now, it's up to Florida's public health officials to take a long, hard look at Dr. Callahan's suggestions, before their “cure” for mosquito-borne Zika virus becomes worse than the disease.

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