January 24, 2012 New Latin American governments and civil society combine forces at COP17
By Guy Edwards
The COP17 was a watershed moment for Latin American civil society participation in the UNFCCC negotiations. Civil society organizations (CSOs) actively engaged with governments at the talks and, in turn, governments made efforts to reach out to civil society. This increased level of exchange can be observed on two levels.
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- Posted under Civil Society, Durban: COP 17, Latin America
January 24, 2012 Why the UNFCCC needs more countries like Mexico
By Guy Edwards
During the COP17 I caught up with Dr. Fernando Tudela Abad, one of Mexico’s foremost climate change experts and a high ranking official of the Mexican delegation. Dr. Tudela is Under Secretary of Environmental Policy and Planning at the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resource and also chairs the expert group of the OECD on climate change.
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Tags: Mexico
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- Posted under Latin America, UNFCCC
December 22, 2011 Running from Climate Change: The Obama Administration’s Changing Rhetoric
President Obama at COP15, AFP Photo
By Graciela Kincaid
At both President Obama’s “job speech” to the Joint Session of Congress and his speech at the Clinton Global Initiative last September, one issue was shockingly absent from the agenda: climate change. The term was scarcely mentioned in either speech, and more surprisingly, the administration also failed to deliver on the more popular message of clean energy. For all the talk of job creation and economic growth, the role of green jobs and a potential transition to a green economy were missing from the dialogue. In fact, lately the green jobs issue has taken a serious hit because green innovation has not been proven to create enough immediate “boots, jeans and helmets” jobs.
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Tags: clean energy, climate change, climate finance, global warming, Obama, political rhetoric, United States
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- Posted under United States
December 9, 2011 Occupy COP17
By Adam Kotin and Cecilia Pineda
As negotiators determine the fate of the Kyoto Protocol on the last day of COP17, youth from all over the world, NGO members, and a few distinguished negotiators stormed the hallways of the International Convention Centre demanding climate justice.
Protesters began the march toward the opening plenary for the 7th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) singing a mix of the South African miner’s song “Shosholoza” and chants for climate justice. Borrowing the human microphone from the U.S. Occupy Wall Street movement, they voiced their demands for the negotiators to come up with an ambitious, legally-binding treaty to reduce emissions.
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- Posted under Civil Society, Durban: COP 17
December 9, 2011 Is anyone listening to the new leaders on climate?
By Cecilia Pineda
In the months prior to the COP15 in Copenhagen, President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed convened the first meeting of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and urged leaders to make active carbon neutral pledges to arm their convictions that their survival depends on all countries pursuing low-carbon economies.
Nasheed believed that a bloc of carbon-neutral developing countries could move the outcome of Copenhagen.
To Nasheed’s disappointment, not all of the countries jumped on the carbon-neutral bandwagon and it is unlikely whether these countries could have prevented the train-wreck of Copenhagen which sacrificed 189 voices for the sake of 5. Nonetheless, out of the ashes of the COP15 we have begun to see the rise of new leaders and alliances, which rally under the progressive banner and promote low-carbon growth at home and abroad.
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- Posted under Durban: COP 17, Mitigation, UNFCCC
December 9, 2011 Developing Countries Demand Database in Durban
BY CECILIA PINEDA AND ADAM KOTIN
When the United States, the EU, and Australia all disagree with a chorus of small developing countries in the negotiation rooms, it looks a bit like schoolyard bullying.
But that’s exactly what happened this week in Durban during informal consultations on National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), as Parties argued over the option of establishing a database to record funding and support for the NAPs process. And beneath the display of power dynamics lurked an all-important debate on what transparent climate action actually looks like.
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- Posted under Uncategorized
December 8, 2011 It Takes Two Hands to Clap
By Linlang He
Will China break the impasse in the negotiations?
Yesterday morning’s High-Level Forum on Climate Change at China Pavilion clearly lifted the spirits of its participants. Head Delegate of the China Delegation Mr. Xie Zhenhua, together with leaders from the World Bank, the UK and the EU, summarized China’s current achievements in energy efficiency and renewable energy development, reaffirmed the need for a greener growth and urged developed countries to “play from their hearts”.
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- Posted under China, Durban: COP 17
December 7, 2011 El Salvador stresses adaptation to keep its head above water
By Adam Kotin
When devastating floods hit El Salvador in October 2011, 40% of the country’s crops were wiped out. Agricultural Minister José Guillermo López Suárez was forced to import the nation’s signature kidney beans all the way from China.
But sadly, this wasn’t a new experience for the fast-developing Central American nation. At a COP17 panel presentation, El Salvadoran Minister of the Environment Herman Rosa Chávez discussed the slew of extreme weather events his country has endured over the last several years.
For El Salvador, severe climate-related losses have almost become an annual rite.
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Tags: El Salvador
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- Posted under Adaptation, Durban: COP 17, UNFCCC Negotiations Topics
December 3, 2011 Latin American civil society builds bridges at the COP17 in Durban
By Guy Edwards and Mónica López-Baltodano*
Today, at the COP17, a group of Latin American platforms, networks and fora organized by the Building Bridges initiative met with delegations from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama to discuss the primary issues under negotiation including the longevity of the Kyoto Protocol, designing the Green Climate Fund and adaptation.
The Ecuadorian commented on her satisfaction at seeing so many young people participating in this important event, and that with Rio+20 around the corner, the outcomes from Durban will have an impact on the event to be held in Brazil, 20 years after the Earth Summit that gave rise to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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- Posted under Durban: COP 17, Latin America
December 2, 2011 Just add cash for climate adaptation
By Spencer Fields
In this 2006 file photo, a woman walks past a building in Brikama, Gambia. Source: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
It’s really quite simple. For the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), “funding is paramount,” to use the succinct summary provided by Pa Ousman Jarju, the Gambian chair of the LDC Group.
The Least Developed Countries have already written their National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), comprehensive reports on their projects focused on adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.
They have already prioritized the projects in order to address first those that require urgent and immediate attention. There even already exists a funding mechanism – the UN-created and Global Environment Facility-managed LDC Fund (LDCF) – to provide them with the financial resources they need to implement the projects.
As Jarju pointed out this week at the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, all they need now is cash.
Seems straightforward, right?
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- Posted under Adaptation, Climate Finance, Durban: COP 17
