IPS (Durban): Negotiators at the 17th Conference of Parties owe it to the world’s more than seven billion people to deliver a deal with a work plan for agriculture, a sector that is expected to be the worst affected by climate change. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO of Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Advocacy Network told [...]

December 4, 2011 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — “Bolivia came out swinging at its first press conference of the climate change conference” on December 1, reported the Durban Mercury’s Yusuf Omar on December 2. Head of the Bolivian delegation Rene Orellana criticised the Green Climate Fund “– which is meant to help [...]

Tribune Pak: Pakistan won the ‘Robin Hood’ award at the UN climate talks for proposing financial transaction tax (FTT) as an innovative source of financing the Green Climate Fund (GCF), on Saturday. The award was given to Pakistan by the youth constituency of the UNFCCC, known as YOUNGO. “The Green Climate Fund is very important [...]

IPS: Just a few days into the United Nations climate change negotiations, deep divides on the conference’s key issues have arisen. Serious doubts about the adoption of the Green Climate Fund have cropped up, while a second period of the Kyoto- Protocol looks more and more unlikely. A number of South American countries, the United [...]

The goal of holding global warming to 2C will be missed if the world’s largest economies insist on delaying negotiations. When psychologists identified the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance – the ability to believe two contradictory things at the same time – they might have been describing the world of international climate change negotiations. Only this [...]

Durban Post: Dr. C. S. Silori* writing from Durban on Day-II & III, 29-30 November 2011 I had promised to come back, and here I am again with a short report of what happened on day 3 of the ongoing conference of the parties (COP 17) in Durban. It was a hectic day, as I [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Guardian: IPCC expected to confirm link between climate change and extreme weather. Report likely to conclude that man-made emissions are increasing the frequency of storms, floods and droughts.  Climate Change is likely to cause more storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, according to the most authoritative review yet of the effects of global [...]

MRD Journal: Winter Tourism and Climate Change in the Alps: An Assessment of Resource Consumption, Snow Reliability, and Future Snow making Potential The winter tourism industry is facing considerable challenges with climate change; it is increasingly responding with investments in snow making facilities. We present a study on 3 tourism destinations in the Swiss Alps [...]

Kuenselonline: Lack of equipment and trained personnel impedes analysis of available met data Climate Change A major part of the Eastern Himalayas, where  Bhutan is located, is undergoing a warming trend of about one-degree Celsius per year. The director of department of hydro meteorology services, Karma Tshering, yesterday in his presentation  “climate change over Bhutan from [...]

Daily Star: 17th Saarc Summit ends in Maldives with 20-point Addu Declaration; South Asian leaders also agree to forge effective cooperation for full implementation of Safta, better connectivity and steps towards Saarc Market for Electricity. The 17th Saarc summit ended at Addu in the Maldives yesterday with the adoption of a 20-point Addu Declaration to [...]

Assam Tribune: The Planning Commission has accorded investment clearance to implement anti-erosion works to protect Brahmaputra dykes. This project is estimated to cost Rs 8.35 crore. The dyke works relate to 69 km (Uluberi) and 78 km (Borigaon). The proposed scheme envisages anti-erosion measures for a 9000-m long reach on the south bank of the [...]

WWF-Nepal: A five-year program to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal, was officially launched at a ceremony in Kathmandu on 8 Nov 2011. The Hariyo Ban program is a new investment in biodiversity conservation in Nepal, funded by the US Agency for International Development​ (USAID). The program will [...]

Guardian: Action cannot be put off until the economic storm has passed. The poor countries most vulnerable to the extreme weather associated with climate change need help now. Critics often accuse world leaders of being able to focus on no more than one problem at once. So with the economic crisis, and the eurozone’s problems [...]

The minutes of First meeting of the Working Group on “Mountain Eco-systems and Challenges Faced by the People living in the Hilly Areas” for formulation of the 12th Five year Plan” is given below, that was held on 28 October 2011 at Yojana Bhavan in New Delhi. It was chaired by Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Member, [...]

The UNFCCC Compendium on methods and tools to evaluate impacts of, and vulnerability and adaptation to, climate change is designed to assist Parties and other potential users in selecting the most appropriate methodology for assessments of impacts and vulnerability, and preparing for adaptation to climate change. The Compendium was developed in 1999 and updated in [...]

Himalayan Times: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, is now warming up, and preparations are taking place. It will bring together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, [...]

Himalayan Times: Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Gyan Chandra Acharya has stressed on the strong need for providing continued support for strengthened and effective voice and participation of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in decision- and rule-making and standard- and norm-setting areas in all relevant international forums. Delivering a speech on behalf of LDCs [...]

Indian Express: After getting the Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in India to implement the clean development mechanism (CDM) project. Under the project, world’s largest, the World Bank will buy carbon credits from the new forests being developed [...]

The Adaptation Fund has been established by the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed with 2% of the Certified Emission Reduction (CERs) issued for projects of [...]

CBS News: A food versus fuel debate has raged for the past few years as ethanol consumes more and more of the U.S. corn supply. Ethanol will use about 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, and for the first time ever, more corn will go into motor fuel production than into feed [...]

Washingtonpost: Plenty of media outlets picked up the news last week that a team of skeptical Berkeley scientists tore through the 20th century temperature data and found… well, they found that the Earth has been warming significantly in the past century, just like NASA and the Climate Research Unit have been telling us all along. [...]

Sudhirendar Sharma: Writes about the potential of mountain states in India in terms of their natural wealth and kind of benchmark for the services provided by them. By taking examples from developed countries his doubts are about insignificant valuation of tangible ecosystem services, therefore the unlikely transaction of such payments in near future. His discourse [...]

GIZ: How are business and production affected by climate change impacts? And in which situations are investments in adaptation measures cost-effective and sustainable? Efforts to understand the opportunities and challenges that climate change adaptation presents for the private sector are relatively new, but urgently needed. In many developing countries, local small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), [...]

Reuters: A U.N. committee has completed the draft design of a fund to help developing countries tackle climate change, paving the way for its launch in 2013, the U.N.’s climate chief said on Friday. Last year, countries agreed to create the ‘Green Climate Fund’ to channel up to $100 billion a year by 2020 to [...]

Times of India: Switzerland ambassador Philippe Welti said here on Tuesday that the Swiss embassy in India was committed to promoting partnership projects that seek to address common worries and challenges of global scale, like climate change. Welti was in the city as part of a day-long tour to Akole and Sangamner talukas in neighbouring Ahmednagar district to [...]

Carbon Sense: Concrete is the most abundant man-made material in the world. Looking outside our window at here Carbon Sense, concrete is everywhere. Unfortunately, concrete companies are in the position of having to clean up somebody else’s mess. That somebody is the cement industry. In fact, the cement industry is second in GHG emissions, after [...]

MSNBC: The high peaks of the Himalayas may soon be a beacon for adventurous solar power entrepreneurs, suggests a new study that identified the lofty region as having some of the world’s greatest potential to capture energy from the sun. Other regions not traditionally considered hotbeds of solar power potential include the Andes of South [...]

FNB News: The First ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture, which was held recently in Jakarta, Indonesia, was co-chaired by Dr Suswono, minister of agriculture, Indonesia, and Sharad Pawar, minister of agriculture, India. The ministers reaffirmed their strong support in advancing cooperation under the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and [...]

Bangladesh among 28 developing countries ranked fifth most vulnerable to climate change and hunger, said a new report. The ActionAid research report styled ‘On the Brink: Who’s Best Prepared for a Climate Change and Hunger Crisis?” reveals that Bangladesh is more vulnerable than its neighbours India, Pakistan and Nepal, who ranked 7, 14 and 16 [...]

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE : KATHMANDU, Oct 9: The world´s highest webcam has been installed in the Nepalese Himalayas, beaming live images of Mount Everest back to scientists studying the effects of climate change on the planet´s tallest peak. The solar-powered camera, set at 5,675 metres (18,618 feet) on Kala Patthar, a smaller mountain facing Everest, [...]

Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation: MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Bangladesh joined forces for an initiative in the United Nations Human Rights Council to urge the international community to address the adverse effects of climate change on human rights. Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Evan P. [...]

Daily Times: President says devastation caused by climatic changes is a wake-up call to search permanent solutions to natural disasters ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari, on Friday, called upon the international community, especially the countries advanced in disaster management, to assist Pakistan in capacity building so that it could meet eventualities caused by natural calamities [...]

The New Indian Express:  India’s first climate change conclave to be held in Hyderabad will help raise awareness on alternative energy resources and improve the existing energy policies in the country. Climate change is for real and India, as a growing economic and industrial power, has an increased role in global climate change control. The [...]

ADB: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing loans of up to $350 million for transmission system upgrades to help the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh take greater advantage of its vast hydropower resources. The ADB Board of Directors has approved the multitranche financing facility for the Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Transmission Investment Program, with [...]

UNNC: The head of the United Nations disaster risk reduction agency arrives tomorrow (6 Oct) in Pakistan to discuss possible measures to reduce the impact and recurrence of major floods, which have inundated much of the Asian country in the past two years. Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, is scheduled [...]

WRI: The World Resources Institute and the Coca-Cola Company recently announced a partnership that made industry-leading global water risk maps publicly available for the first time. Coca-Cola has donated maps and data that they developed to help them towards the goal of understanding and managing their exposure to water risks in their facilities around the [...]

UNEP: The Royal Government of Bhutan, known worldwide as the architect of the philosophy of Gross National Happiness, committed to protect the ozone layer as Royal Bride-to-be, Jetsun Pema, launched the country’s HCFC Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP). Bhutan made a historic commitment to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which are both ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and powerful [...]

FutureChallanges: Unstable climatic patterns, natural disasters, water scarcity, agricultural destruction and other evidence of environmental degradation is widespread today in most countries of the world. But the high impact of the deadly side of climate change has become much too common in the countries of the deprived. Among the countries worst affected by Climate Change, [...]

Reuters: A new plan to curb global warming risks becoming a battleground between rich and poor nations and could struggle to get off the ground as negotiators battle over the fate of the ailing Kyoto climate pact. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol covers only emissions from rich nations that produce less than a third of mankind’s [...]

AFP: The ability of forests, plants and soil to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air has been under-estimated, according to a study on Wednesday that challenges a benchmark for calculating the greenhouse-gas problem. Like the sea, the land is a carbon “sink”, or sponge, helping to absorb heat-trapping CO2 disgorged by the burning of [...]

Guardian: Former US vice president tells Scottish green conference that evidence from floods in Pakistan and China is compelling. Al Gore, has warned that there is now clear proof that climate changeis directly responsible for the extreme and devastating floods, storms and droughts that displaced millions of people this year. Speaking to an audience of [...]

Scientific American: Emissions trading is the foundation of climate policy, but documents further reveal how problematic it is. As the world gears up for the next round of United Nations climate-change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in November, evidence has emerged that a cornerstone of the existing global climate agreement, the international greenhouse-gas emissions-trading system, [...]

IPS News: At least 200 million people in the world are in danger of being left without water, because they depend for their supply on glaciers that are melting, although paradoxically the process creates the illusion of plentiful water resources. While the average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 [...]

Guardian: Mission launched to measure change in Himalayas as anecdotal evidence grows of melting ice on mountain’s southern approach. Climbers and custodians of Everest say that rapid climate change could soon make for an ice-free ascent of the world’s tallest mountain. Their warning comes come amid a new international effort to gauge the effects of [...]

Alertnet: The earth moves and across a metropolis, the schools and offices come crashing down, bridges snap sending cars smashing below, and fallen power lines set off fires. In seconds, the quake has left a world capital with mass casualties and economic losses. That could be the scenario in many of South Asia’s populous cities [...]

Suman K A: The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the eight missions under the NAPCC, lays emphasis on four key functional areas and ten important dimensions. Through these, the mission seeks to target both; the imminent challenges from the likely impacts of climate change on Indian agriculture and the more fundamental ones [...]

Womens eNews: The documentary “Weathering Change,” released today, shows how climate change is disproportionately impacting women. In one Nepali woman’s village, the forest has been depleted and only a quarter of the inhabitants have enough to eat. Walking into the forest near her home, Sarada Chaudhary likes to look up. Above her head, branches weave [...]

UPI: The United Nations appealed for $357 million for flood-ravaged southern Pakistan. An estimated 5.4 million people have been affected by the floods stemming from heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 1 million homes have been destroyed and 72 percent of crops lost in the worst affected areas in Sindh and Balochistan. In launching its Rapid Response [...]

Guardian: Numbers of people displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters likely to increase, Asian Development Bank warns. More than 30 million people were displaced last year by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia, experts have warned, and the problem is only likely to grow worse as climate change exacerbates such problems. Tens of millions more [...]

Sudhirendar Sharma:  Why is the developed world, that is obsessed with the idea of `greed economy’, thrusting its new capitalist variant – green economy – on the growing economies? Is it a calculated move to pin down the growing differences between the north and the south with a green business model?  Henk Manschot, a Professor [...]

Guardian: Focus should shift to economics to make notion of sustainability more widely accepted, says senior organiser for Brazil. Next year’s Rio+20 United Nations summit must “un-environmentalise” the world’s approach to sustainability so that it can reach out beyond the converted, according to a senior organiser in the host nation. André Corrêa do Lago, the [...]

Guardian: Those deciding how to best use money for climate mitigation in poor countries can learn from 50 years of debate on aid effectiveness. But some new rules are also needed Most commentators agree that the additional funding developing countries need to respond to climate change will require a major flow of finance from richer [...]