London: European leaders agreed for the first time today that the price tag for tackling global warming would amount to €100bn (£89bn) a year by 2020, up to half of which would need to come from taxpayers' money in the developed world.
But mired in wrangling over how to split the European share of the bill among 27 countries and how much Europe collectively should spend, they failed to agree on urgent short-term funding for combating climate change in the developing world... Read more...
Google Earth Pro unveiled for African NGOs
31 October 2009, source: Computerworld URL: http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=A6083927-1A64-6A71-CEEBDE46CD8778F8
Google has unveiled its Google Earth Pro software to coincide with the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. The software is available through the Google Earth Outreach Program, which lets local NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and other public-benefit organizations visualize their projects and demonstrate their impact... Read more...
Convince public on climate to save planet: experts
London: The public needs to be convinced about the threat of climate change so governments are under pressure to adopt strong policies and extend a U.N. pact to fight climate change in Copenhagen this December, experts say. Persuading the public that the long-term effects of climate change could be averted by action now should be a top priority, psychology experts said at a climate change psychology conference in London this week... Read more...
Why the UN must form global organ to manage world habitat
30 October 2009, source: Daily Nation URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200910281041.html
Nairobi: Global environmental crises, from vanishing biodiversity and degrading forests to collapsing fish stocks and climate change, will not be solved without some tough thinking about international governance. The way the world has evolved its response to the unfolding challenges has become a bewildering and confusing array of institutions, agreements and treaties that is in urgent need of reform... Read more...
Malawi: When disaster strikes
30 October 2009, source: European Commission Humanitarian Aid department URL: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/HHVU-7X9CK4?OpenDocument
A man desperately reaches for a river bank as flood water pushes him to a likely death in the Lingadzi river in Kasache village close to Lake Malawi. Four rescuers in bright orange life jackets throw him a line in a last frantic attempt to reach him, realising this may be the last opportunity of saving his life... Read more...
DRR: Facing up to disaster
30 October 2009, source: European Commission Humanitarian Aid department URL: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/HHVU-7X9CNR?OpenDocument
The intensity and frequency of natural disasters in Southern Africa is on the increase as a combination of factors is appearing to change traditional weather patterns across the region. The international Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December will look at the often disastrous affects of climate change on some of the poorest parts of the world... Read more...
Nairobi: With droughts becoming more common, donors and the Ethiopian government must look beyond the traditional "band aid" responses to disasters by using approaches that are more cost-effective, sustainable and better suited to the population, international aid agency Oxfam says in a new report... Read more...
Johannesburg: An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries... Read more...
Africa's common position: key political messages agreed by African negotiators
30 October 2009, source: African Union/AMCEN
Addis Ababa: These key messages [agreed by African negotiators on 21 October 2009] are based on Africa's common position on climate change as adopted in Algiers on 21 November 2008 and updated by Special Session of AMCEN held in Nairobi on 29 May 2009 and endorsed by the Thirteenth AU Summit held in Sirte, Libya, 1-3 July 2009...
Kampala: The Centre for International Governance Innovation's (CIGI) African Initiative is hosting the first of its kind congress addressing the most serious and immediate impacts of climate change in Africa, November 1-4. This event aims to provide guidelines and strategies for mitigation and adaptation in African nations least able to cope with this global challenge... Read more...
Jonathan Lash: WRI testimony to US Senate Committee
30 October 2009, source: World Resources Institute URL: http://www.wri.org/node/11317
Washington: I have a single message to deliver today: The time is ripe for Congress to enact climate legislation to reduce emissions, establish energy security, and create new jobs in clean energy. Other nations are moving; the outcome depends on us. We need global action to solve this global problem... Read more...
El Ni�o and food security in southern Africa
29 October 2009, source: FewsNet URL: http://www.fanrpan.org/documents/d00771/
El Niño is a phenomenon which occurs in the Pacific Ocean, but affects climate globally. This document summarizes the known historic impacts of El Niño in southern Africa. The impact of El Niño in the SADC region has varied significantly in its severity, though it generally has a greater impact in the southern half... Read more...
Municipal responses to climate change in South Africa
29 October 2009, source: Centre for Policy Studies
Johannesburg: This study assesses the extent of progress made in institutionalising climate change policy responses within three metropolitan municipalities in South Africa - Cape Town, eThekwini (Durban) and Johannesburg. By focusing on the progress in some of South Africa's largest metropolitan areas on the issue of climate change policy development and implementation, the study serves to highlight South Africa's readiness and capacity at local government level to deal with climate change and related environmental problems... Read more...
Forests much more than carbon storage
29 October 2009, source: Inter Press Service URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49036
Buenos Aires: The world's forests and jungles are much more than carbon storage sites and compensation for greenhouse emissions, experts and activists point out to governments that are negotiating a new global climate change treaty. Forests hold two-thirds of the planet's biodiversity, provide vital services in terms of water and food supplies, and sustain the cultural and spiritual identities of some 1... Read more...
The science of climate change in Africa: impacts and adaptation
29 October 2009, source: Grantham Institute for Climate Change
The Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College, London, has just released its first discussion paper: Although much has been learned in recent years, there is still a great deal about climate change in Africa that we do not know. The African climate is determined at the macro-level by three major processes or drivers: tropical convection, the alternation of the monsoons, and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation of the Pacific Ocean... Read more...
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