Hindustan Times: As new reports highlighted devastating impact of climate change and record increase in global warming causing carbon emissions, the divide between the developed and developing nations became apparent as global climate talks kick-started in Durban on Monday. At the onset of conferencecoined as ‘Momentum of Change’, South African President Jacob Zuma pointed out [...]
National Geographic: Google Earth Shows How Dams Could Worsen Climate Change. A project of two NGOs highlights far-ranging effects of damming rivers which is a new interactive Google Earth video tour aims to teach people how damming rivers around the world can exacerbate climate change. The video, created by the nonprofit conservation groups International Rivers [...]
OutReach: A new paper published by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the support of the Government of Ireland, offers options to scale up climate action globally in Durban, Rio and beyond. The paper shows that there are far more options to counter climate change than acknowledged or [...]
DW-World.De: Despite the cooling effects of a La Nina event, 2011 is likely to end among the 10 hottest years on record, according to a World Meteorological Organization report released on the sidelines of climate talks in Durban. The past decade has been the hottest on record, according to a report released on the sidelines [...]
The Oxfam is taking the note through its campaign called ‘Hungry for action at the UN Climate Change Conference’. The campaigners say that when there is no food how people are going to survive on this planet, so we need to be aware of the facts and should take immediate actions towards adaptation and mitigation [...]
K N Vajpai: Writes on the expected outcomes from Durban Climate Change Conference (CoP 17)in terms of growing momentum of action and alarm bells from new researches. His discourse is about the meager role played by the leaders from most vulnerable regions like Himalayas and Andes during this important global conference. With the representation [...]
Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment, talks about Climate Change and the global politics that is taking place in ongoing meetings like Durban (CoP 17). Her discourse is about the government actions, regional issues and further marginalization of the poor in developing countries of South Asia. She also talks about the actions underway [...]
Guardian: There are important lessons to be learned from other international treaties – what do they mean for Durban? A growing number of observers are downplaying expectations for the climate summit which kicked off in Durban on Monday. Persistent rumours that the major emitters will not commit to a legally binding agreement before 2020 have [...]
The next two weeks will see nearly 20,000 people descending on Durban for this year’s Climate Change negotiations. What might they achieve? Not much, if you believe some of the pessimistic assessments in the press. Are the gloomsters right? No, not necessarily. What could be achieved? Here goes… starting with the practical decisions that are [...]
NICCD: Leadership plays a crucial role within processes of change and transformation, particularly those associated with the impacts of climate change and variability. In vulnerable developing contexts affected by more frequent and intense climatic events, local leaders are key in the adoption of innovation and learning, as well as in the capacity of vulnerable groups [...]
The New York Times: With its massive chalk-white face of ice and snow, Thorthormi glacier in northern Bhutan looms high against a bright blue sky, nearly 4,450 meters above sea level. At the glacier’s base, a wide lake of murky water completes the dramatic scene at the rooftop of the world. But the beauty of [...]
Two Circles: Tibet is highly vulnerable to climate change and what happens there matters greatly to the rest of mainland Asia, the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who is the third most important Tibetan religious head, says in a yet-to-be-published write-up. “It’s an unfortunate fact that the temperature of the Tibetan plateau is increasing faster [...]
Earth Times: COP17/CMP7 Logo; Credit: The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol Date-Talk-Structure-Paper Action 1977:World Meteorological Organisation decides on a conference in 1977, [...]
Durban Post: Dr. C. S. Silori* writing from Durban on Day-I, 28 November 2011 The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 7) to the Kyoto Protocol, [...]
RECOFTC Blog: On my flight to Durban, to attend the final COP before the (current period) Kyoto Protocol expires, I shared a cappuccino and a conversation with a NASA climate modeling scientist. Asked his views on how the climate change science tallies with the discussions taking place at the UNFCCC, he was blunt: “Things are [...]
The United Nations climate change talks begin their 17th iteration in the rain-soaked South African city of Durban this morning in much the same way that they have since 1995 – with a host of fine rhetoric about why the world needs to act on global warming, but virtually no agreement on how or when. [...]
UN Solution Exchange India: The main points highlighted in the article “Durban diplomacy: Nations may battle to break climate gridlock” by Piyali Mandal, Business Standard, 28th November, 2011 (Available at: http://bit.ly/t5EC9W) are given below: Countries will be discussing and deliberating in their bid to arrive at a consensus on agreement to peak and reduce global [...]
The event will be on the imperative of equity for an effective climate agreement. The event will highlight concerns regarding the Cancun agreement, which shifts the burden of transition to the South and will lead to ineffective and weak action to reduce emissions. It will discuss why the issue of equity is critical for the [...]
New York Times: With intensifying climate disasters and global economic turmoil as the backdrop, delegates from 194 nations will gather in Durban, South Africa, starting Monday to try to advance, if only incrementally, the world’s response to dangerous climate change. To those who have followed the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate [...]
UNFCCC: Q&A with UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres: The UNFCCC and the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, November 2011 (for quotation). What is the UNFCCC? The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was established in 1992 to tackle the defining challenge of our time. The Convention has near universal membership, with 194 signatory countries [...]
Suman K A: The UNFCCC Secretariat in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will create a series of platforms to encourage adaptation and mitigation projects that have promise to deliver high resilience and low carbon growth. This will be done through the Momentum for Change Initiative to be launched in Durban at CoP17. The [...]
Daily Times: Since 2006, the food insecure population in Pakistan has increased by 12 million while the number of the severely food insecure population (consuming less than 1,700 kcal per day) has risen by 9.6 million to 45.3 million people – 28 percent of the population. Two thirds of these new severely food insecure people [...]
New Agriculturist: As a major user of freshwater and fossil fuels, a significant producer of greenhouse gases and a frequent trigger to deforestation, agriculture has tended to be seen as part of the climate change problem rather than an agent of mitigation. The concept of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) seeks to reverse that pattern, albeit [...]
Guardian: Global emissions need to start to fall within the next five years or so, and each delay makes failure costlier and harder to avoid. The will to act on climate change is out of political energy, running on empty. The problem is (relatively) distant, complex and intractable. The solution is costly, immediate, and the [...]
Occupy movement comes to Cop 17–News from UN climate convention in Durban. Inspired by the Occupy Wall St. movement, protesters calling for “climate justice” are set to gather at the opening of UN climate talks in Durban organisers say. A meeting at the ‘Speaker’s Corner’ will be called, an assembly,” Patrick Bond, a professor at the [...]
ClimaticoAnalysis: Heading into Durban and the United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as the Seventeenth Conference of Parties (COP-17), the G77 remains committed to its long-standing position of achieving a legally binding agreement. Given the ongoing stalemate between developed and developing countries, however, many media accounts say they are unlikely to achieve it anytime [...]
United Nations Development Programme and National Institute of Administrative Research sign USD500, 000 agreement to strengthen training of officials on climate change issues. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Institute of Administrative Research (NIAR), Government of India, signed a partnership in support of national efforts to address climate change through strengthening the [...]
The Hindu: In Ranikhet, if you follow a tall man on a unicycle you would reach the India office of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Director of the school, N. Ravi Kumar, is a rock climber and mountaineer with keen interest in cycling. Predictably, the modest premises hosting office, hostel, equipment store, merchandise room [...]
Reuters: Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the U.N. climate panel said. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries meet in Durban, South Africa, on Monday for two-week [...]
FAO will support countries during the upcoming 17th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) to be held from 28 November to 9 December 2011 in Durban, South Africa to ensure that linkages between climate change and food security issues are taken into account during [...]
JARGON BUSTER HOW WILL COP 17 WORK? WHERE IS THE BULK OF THE POLITICAL ACTION AND IN WHICH NEGOTIATING GROUPS ARE DECISIONS FINALLY MADE? WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SESSIONS AND EVENTS AT A COP AND WHICH ARE OPEN TO JOURNALISTS? HOW DO YOU FIND OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHAT IS WORTH COVERING? [...]
UNFCCC COP17 Side Event 1 December 2011, 20:15-21:45 at Room “Blyde River” Jointly Organised by IGES and Tsinghua University, China The side event will show Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies recent research findings on the low carbon development in China and Japan, tracking domestic activities, policies and performance towards [...]
Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi India is pleased to invite interested delegates to a side-event on Co-benefits approaches to climate change in India on Thurs, 1st December 2011, as part of the UNFCCC COP 17/ CMP 7 at Durban. Co-Benefits Based Approaches to Climate Change in India: Politics, Policies and Programmes India’s climate policy [...]
Zee News: Global climate change and its profound implication on the biological system- is much more evident than ever before – the extreme weather conditions like scorching heat, floods, droughts, storms, epidemics, extinction of species validates the fact that climate change as a phenomenon can no more be ignored – and that, it’s because of [...]
From the Atkins to the Dukan, protein-based diets are big news in the celebrity world. But what effect is our love affair with meat, fish and cheese having on the environment? Barely a week goes by without news of another ‘wonder diet’ hitting the headlines. Along with the bedroom antics of the Premier League’s finest [...]
IWMI: As the negotiators, activists and journalists gather in South Africa for the UN Climate Change Conference, once again the crucial role of water in mitigation and adaptation strategies needs to be addressed. No doubt much of the discussion in Durban will focus, quite rightly, on a political solution to the thorny issue of curbing [...]
IRIN- Did the heatwave of summer 2003, which killed at least 30,000 people in Europe, have anything to do with climate change? And were the 2010 floods in Pakistan, which affected more than 20 million people, linked to a warming climate? Various studies have attempted to examine the links between extreme weather events and climate [...]
CDKN: Giant strides are needed to decarbonise the world economy, and giant strides need a giant causeway – marked out on the landscape by a global deal on emissions targets, generous finance, and a high and rising international price of carbon. But what happens if the road-builders are on strike, or working to rule, as [...]
CDKN: There is muted hope and frustration in equal measure in the lead-up to CoP-17/CMP-7 in Durban. Hope that the Durban conference will resolve the vexed question of ‘legal form’ of the Bali ‘agreed outcome’ and provide Kyoto with a new lease of life, and frustration that the politics as they are emerging may make [...]
CoP-17: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, will bring together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and [...]
Mountain Day On 4 Dec 2011, By ICIMOD, Nepal Mountain Day will assemble a high-level panel of global personalities, ministers, and scientists to advocate the value and critical role of mountains and share scientific evidence and examples of challenges and opportunities. The day-long programme will also include plenary presentations and discussions, working groups, and panel [...]
Meeting of Minds – International Conference on Sharing of Experiences in the Design and Implementation of Adaptation Strategies and Programmes in Asian Mountain Regions 30 Nov – 6 Dec 2011 The participants of this workshop are expected to actively engage in discussions during the meetings and to contribute by own interventions from their professional experience [...]
“Durban is increasingly being acknowledged as a global leader in the environmental field and more specifically in the area of climate protection planning. COP17-CMP7 (COP17) provides a critical opportunity for the city to demonstrate its environmental approach through the COP17-CMP 7 Greening Programme, which aims to minimise the environmental impact of the event,” says Dr [...]
Chinadilogue: In his alarming Tropic of Chaos, Christian Parenti sees a “new geography of violence” as political, economic and environmental disasters collide and climate change multiplies the threats. This book is a must-read, says Jan McGirk. Investigative journalist Christian Parenti’s latest book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence, is a [...]
International Business Times: Polar ice sheets have accelerated their retreat while global temperatures added up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the onset of frenetic industrial activities, prompting scientists to suggest that time may be running out to arrest the ill-effects of climate change. This according to the latest report issued on Monday by the U.N. World [...]
Guardian: Fears rise of huge outburst flooding in the Himalayas as glaciers melt due to climate change. It’s strangely calming to watch the Imja glacier lake grow, as chunks of ice part from black cliffs and fall into the grey-green lake below. But the lake is a high-altitude disaster in the making – one of [...]
The News: The Building Code of Pakistan (Energy Provisions 2011) already approved by the Steering Committee will soon be finalised by the Task Force of Pakistan Engineering Council. National Energy Conservation Centre (Enercon) Assistant Chief (Buildings) Abrar Malik stated this at a seminar on ‘Cool Roofs: Solar Radiation Management (SRM) Techniques to Combat Climate Change [...]
The EU-UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building Programme (LECBP) was launched in January 2011 as part of a joint collaboration between the European Union (European Commission and Member States) and the United National Development Programme. This collaborative, country driven programme aims to strengthen technical and institutional capacities at the country level, while at the same time [...]
Bhutan is a small fragile mountainous country situated in the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. Its total land covers 38,394 sq km. The climate is strongly influenced by its topography with elevations ranging from about 100m in the foothills to over 7,500m to the north covering three distinct climatic zones: 1) the southern plains [...]
Ground Report: Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system; it is not the nearest to the sun but it is so hot that it can melt hard metals if placed on its surface. Greenhouse effect from the action of Green House Gases (GHGs) is the chief factor for this hotness. Venus is next [...]
SciDevNet: This policy brief, published by the International Project Office of the Global Water System Project and produced to inform the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), outlines how scientists and policymakers can advance water security by focusing on interdisciplinary research, and ensuring that all stakeholders are involved in developing sustainable solutions to water problems. [...]
NRDC: The highly anticipated report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) directly linking climate change and extreme weather was released on Friday. This report follows last month’s release of a statement from medical experts worldwide warning that climate change, and its resulting extreme weather, poses the “greatest threat to public health.” Both [...]
Science 2.0: Although the fundamental tenets of many religions may have some bearing on conservation activities, the relationship between spiritualism and environmentalism is perhaps most obvious in the case of Buddhism. The close ties between Buddhism and conservation-mindedness were recently described by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, in an essay published [...]
Scientific American: Warmer temperatures will combine with numerous other factors to make diseases like malaria and West Nile virus harder to control. Climate change can influence how infectious diseases affect the world, particularly illnesses spread by vectors like mosquitoes. Now scientists have developed some understanding about how rainfall and temperature can influence malaria, dengue and [...]
MND: Rajendra Pachauri, chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2008: we carry out an assessment of climate change based on peer-reviewed literature, so everything that we look at and take into account in our assessments has to carry [the] credibility of peer-reviewed publications, we don’t settle for anything less than that. [source - see bottom [...]
BBC: A new batch of emails and other documents from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit has been released on the internet. There are more than 5,000 emails, while other documents include working papers relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A similar release in 2009 triggered the “ClimateGate” affair [...]
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is highly dynamic as there are many socioeconomic and environmental drivers of change at play, including climate change. The impacts of these changes challenge the resilience of natural and human capacities and environments in the region. Climate change is believed to contribute to extreme weather events and possibly to increase [...]
MyRepublica: Experts from different countries including Nepal have expressed concerns over decreasing pollinator populations, as it results in low pollination rate posting threat to food security. About 25 experts and pollination management project managers from seven countries, who recently participated at international workshops in Chitwan and Kathmandu, stressed the need to formulate country strategies to [...]
Times of India: Isolating the human imprint on global warming amid natural climate fluctuations requires long-term analysis and not short term studies, satellite data reveals. The data indicates that the lower troposphere (up to eight km above the earth’s surface) has warmed roughly by 17 degrees Celsius since the beginning of satellite temperature records in [...]
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