What Next – Climate Watch
The Convention on Biological Diversity -- A visual introduction
Ever wondered what the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is all about? Here's a great-looking and informative info graphic done by the amazing young folks at Earth in Brackets. Click on the image.
View Comments
The Climate Convention (UNFCCC) -- A visual introduction
Another great infographic on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by Earth in Brackets. Click on the image.
The Committe on World Food Security -- A visual introduction
Thu, May 16 2013 11:37
| UN, Agriculture
| Permalink
A third info-graphic describing the Committee on World Food Security by Earth in Brackets. Click on the image.
Doha Assessment: Doha climate talks bury international action in the desert
Devastating verdict on the outcomes of the Doha negotiations, jointly issued by Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Action Aid, Oxfam, WWF, Christian Aid and trade union federation ITUC.
'Hot-air' release at Doha climate talks dispels tension
By Roger HarrabinEnvironment analyst, Doha, QatarDetails have emerged of a deal to solve the "hot air" row undermining the EU in the UN climate change talks in Doha. The term refers to unused, tradeable carbon emission permits given to Eastern European nations. They are among a number of issues that threaten to stall progress at the talks, due to end on Friday evening.Poland had been reluctant to give
Climate Justice Advocates Slam Doha's Emerging 'Sham Of A Deal'
By Jon Queally
http://www.countercurrents.org/queally081212.htm
08 December, 2012
CommonDreams.org
With terms like "sluggish" "tough-going" and "extremely sour" used to describe the tone and progress of the UN climate talks in Doha on Friday, the hope for an agreement that could actually meet the ever-escalating challenges of global warming caused by human pollution was seemingly at an all-time low.
Climate campaigners and civil society groups are convinced that the commitments being exchanged among the international delegates are not nearly enough, exposing the ongoing futility of trying to get rich nations to take responsibility for their outsized carbon footprints or increase their meager financial commitments to developing nations.
http://www.countercurrents.org/queally081212.htm
08 December, 2012
CommonDreams.org
With terms like "sluggish" "tough-going" and "extremely sour" used to describe the tone and progress of the UN climate talks in Doha on Friday, the hope for an agreement that could actually meet the ever-escalating challenges of global warming caused by human pollution was seemingly at an all-time low.
Climate campaigners and civil society groups are convinced that the commitments being exchanged among the international delegates are not nearly enough, exposing the ongoing futility of trying to get rich nations to take responsibility for their outsized carbon footprints or increase their meager financial commitments to developing nations.
How many Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide…?
Mon, Dec 10 2012 11:46
| COP18, Equity, Climate Science, Carbon budgets, UNFCCC
| Permalink
Check out this pedagogic inforgraphic showing illustrating the very small carbon budget that remains, and the implications of a warming climate.
Urgent letter to Connie Hedegaard from European youth and civil society
http://pusheurope.eu/2012/12/07/doha-eu-letter/
Dear Commissioner Hedegaard,
We, European youth and civil society, are writing to you in these critical final hours of the UN climate talks in Doha to demand that the EU acts now and changes its position at the UNFCCC.
We have witnessed over the past two weeks the EU’s consistent refusal to live up to its responsibilities, and we condemn this lack of progress. The EU claims to be a climate leader but it is acting as a blocker.
The big environment and development organisations support strong condemnation letter by social movements
In a rare joint press conference with Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Action Aid, Oxfam, WWF and Christian Aid jointly supported the letter issued by social movements and other civil society organizations demarcating red lines for the negotiations, and declaring governments not keeping to these demands (or walking out) be condemned. Tthe chairs of the Africa group, the LDC and AOSIS
Strong internvention by Naderev M Saño, Philippines
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OpI-PD6weG8
Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol
Closing meeting
PHL intervention
Delivered by Comm. Naderev M. Saño
Climate Change Commission
Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol
Closing meeting
PHL intervention
Delivered by Comm. Naderev M. Saño
Climate Change Commission
CAMPAIGNERS SAY: “REJECT THE TEXTS!”
Press release from social movements on the last day of the Doha COP18 negotiations concluding that the current negotiations texts are 'A million miles from where we need to be even to have a small chance of preventing runaway climate change" and that “Things have got so bad that the negotiations are impossible to rescue. We cannot accept what on the table. We call on countries to stand strong and reject the texts.”Red Lines! A letter to ministers and negotiators in Doha
This letter from social movements and civil society to ministers and negotiators of all countries present at Doha set out red lines for people and the planet, warning governments walking away from these positions be condemned. The letter was later supported also by six of the largest environment and development organizations in the world (Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Action Aid, Oxfam, WWF and Christian Aid and trade union federation ITUC)."Governments, rich and poor, must not agree to a “deal” that keeps the planet on track for 4°C and even higher levels of warming, condemning millions of our people to death, starvation, and forced migration."
"Governments cannot be distracted by a post-2020 agreement.We need climate action now for this critical decade.Any government that walks away from these positions will be condemned. They will be condemned by global civil society.They will be condemned by their people.They will be condemned by history.They will condemn us all to devastating and irreversible climate change, withlife on planet Earth at stake."
At Stake at Doha: A rules based international climte regime
A civil society Climate justice brief highlighting what is at stake in the Doha climate negotiations – the deregulation of the international climate regime to a 'pledge-and-review' architecture."This effort to dismantle the climate architecture as it applies to rich industrialized nations, to avoid existing commitments and to shift the burden to developing countries threatens a “lost decade” of inaction setting the world on course for a 6°C temperature rise and catastrophic climate impacts."
Statement of Asia Social Movements on Climate Change at the Asia Social Movements Assembly
Link to full text of statement here:
We have seen climate change related phenomena with intensity never seen before, like Hurricane Sandy, in many parts of the world in the past year.We no longer have the luxury of time as incidents of increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts, disruption of water cycles and other similar eventsare becoming the “new normal” for many countries. It is also becoming apparent that climate change is instigating more forced migration, and will createmore climate refugees. An estimated 200 million people could be displaced by climate change by 2050. In 2010 alone, it was estimated that more than30 million people were forcibly displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia and this number will continue to rise. Climatechange has also been wreaking havoc on crops and farmlands, worsening the already growing food crisis and pushing even more people into hunger.
And yet, despite the increasing devastation wreaked by climate change on farmlands, livelihoods, and homes, the UN Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations are moving backwards instead of moving closer to a global agreement that will stabilize and cut greenhousegas emissions. The premise of the climate negotiations has always been based on the principle that developed countries need to live up to theirhistorical responsibility and yet from Cancun to Durban to Qatar, negotiations have instead focused on how developed countries can escape theirprevious commitments. Now, with the current proposals on the table, not only are developed countries going to be able escape commitments bywatering obligations down to voluntary pledges but they will also be able to create more carbon markets and loopholes in order to not take any action atall. Estimates from a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have calculated that even without all the loopholes, these currentpledges will lead to an increase in the temperature of up to 5 degrees centigrade.
The inconvenient truth of carbon offsets
Tue, Apr 10 2012 11:24
| Carbon trading
| Permalink
by Kevin Anderson
Deputy Director
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
University of Manchester, UK
Nature, vol. 484, no. 7 (link to pdf)
5 April 2012
Planet Under Pressure was a major conference on the environment held in London last week. As a climate-change scientist, I was invited to organize a session at it and to present my group's research. I declined the offer, and here is why.
Deputy Director
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
University of Manchester, UK
Nature, vol. 484, no. 7 (link to pdf)
5 April 2012
Planet Under Pressure was a major conference on the environment held in London last week. As a climate-change scientist, I was invited to organize a session at it and to present my group's research. I declined the offer, and here is why.