And the Conference of the Parties begins…..
Last year, in Bali Indonesia, the nations of the world agreed to reach an agreement by 2009 to tackle climate change. By December 15th 2009, in Copenhagen Denmark, governments are expected to reach an agreement that will holistically tackle not only the issues of emissions, but also the impacts to those most vulnerable. This coming Monday, in Poznan, Poland, the UN will meet again to advance the Bali Action Plan.
The Bali roadmap, which has become more like a treasure-hunt, brings many daunting challenges to Poznan. From tackling issues of deforestation in tropical forest, to insurance schemes to help countries recover from extreme climate change-related losses, Poznan is happening in the midst of global financial crisis that many countries are already using as a scape-goat for dumping climate goals and continuing the decades of inaction and unsustainable economic policies. The stakes are high, yet ideas are not flowing. The developed countries’ proposals on technology transfer and finance for mitigation and adaptation are a carbon copy of the failed regulation mechanisms of modern history, yet somehow they are asking developing nations to take bold steps in order to achieve an agreement.
For something meaningful to come out of the agreement next year, Poznan must set a new path.
Rather that trying fixing our future on new-yet-dirty of the same fuels that have gotten us in trouble, we need a vision of a world where well-being is not coupled with greenhouse gases. There will be over 500 young people in Poznan, and they have been organizing for months. Over this weekend they will come together at Conference of Youth to finish their strategy, and over the next two weeks youth from across the planet will be contributing to itsgettinghotinhere.org, giving their perspective on the process and their suggestions for fixing the planet we will inherit. You can also contribute with your message by sharing your views with COP14 youth messaging team
The first week of the negotiations in Bonn has ended. It has been an interesting week, to say the least, with lots of interesting ideas on how to move forward on finance and technology transfer. One of the highlights was the discussion on investment and finance to address climate change on Thursday afternoon. These were some of the ideas put forward:
The typhoon season is technically over in South East Asia, which gives us some time to start thinking over what has happened over the past few months. A lot was learned during 2007 in the disaster management and disaster risk reduction field. Some events showed us that we are improving in how we respond to extreme weather events; some showed that there still a lot that we need to figure out. Vietnam, where I live, was affected by five typhoons in 2007, and some of the worst floods ever experienced in the history of the country.
This year the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the developing world has set new records- though, setting new records for highest floods, most damage, most killed, etc, etc, seems to be common, and the media stops paying attention once the story becomes old. But for those affected, the real impacts of climate change are more than just another story on the news, and the urgency of action has a whole different meaning. When disasters hit, you realize how vulnerable we are and how little everything else matters. We often talk about the impacts of climate change, but not often we listen to those stories.
The next meeting of the
Science Magazine
The fifthteen session of the