Key steps on global warming need to be agreed in Mexico later this year | Jake Schmidt's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC
This December, 194 countries will be in Cancun, Mexico to continue negotiations on international efforts to address climate change. My colleagues and I are in Mexico City this week for a series of discussions with key government officials, NGOs, businesses, and members of the media so we’ve been reflecting on Cancun. The Cancun climate negotiation session (COP16) must serve three critical functions to ensure the continued progress on international climate change efforts and to rebuild some of the trust lost during and after Copenhagen.
First, at Cancun, the international community needs to prove to countries and the world public that it can work together to address climate change. It is essential that countries make some progress in Cancun and show that the international system can work. This is paramount, as a perceived failure will make it even more difficult to build political momentum within the UN system and may lead the public and countries to disengage.
Second, Cancun needs to produce agreement on aspects of the key implementing activities to be delivered by the international agreement –e.g., clean energy technology deployment, deforestation reductions, improving the resilience of countries to the impacts of climate change, etc. While it is unlikely that every aspect of these issues will be resolved in Cancun, it is possible to make significant progress on each of these issues at Cancun. The notion of “nothing is agreed, until everything is agreed” must be set aside in favor of re-establishing confidence by progressively building the agreement component by component.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
MEXICO: Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit - IPS ipsnews.net
MEXICO: Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit - IPS ipsnews.net
Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jun 4, 2010 (IPS) - With less than six months before Mexico hosts the next global climate change summit, Mexican environmental organisations hosting the parallel civil society forum are divided on how to carry it out -- which some fear could ultimately weaken their role at the negotiating table.
The differences are centred on the scenario for bringing together non- governmental organisations (NGOs) in Mexico's Caribbean resort city of Cancún, where the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.
At the COP 15 summit held in Copenhagen last December, the NGOs organised the Kilmaforum09, and some of the Mexican environmental groups want to repeat that formula, while many others want an approach that better reflects the Mexican and Latin American reality.
The disagreements "arise primarily because of power imbalances," Miguel Valencia, one of the 10 members of the Klimaforum 2010 Mexican organising committee, told IPS.
"The big international NGOs, like Greenpeace and Oxfam, are well connected and tolerate too many things from the governments. They accept programmes and issues in the summit negotiations which are unacceptable to the social movements," he said.
Following the failure of the official Copenhagen summit, a group of 30 Danish NGOs passed the Klimaforum baton to representatives of Mexican NGOs. Last December, the parallel forum, also known as the Peoples' Climate Summit, involved some 50,000 activists in more than 300 events.
The organising committee was established in February and meetings immediately began with Mexican NGOs to work together to create a civil society space for the Cancún summit.
The first major open meeting took place during the Peoples' Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, Apr. 20-22.
At that event, a group of Latin American NGOs issued a statement saying, "While we respect and value the experience of the Klimaforum, it responds to the European, and more specifically, Danish, context."
"An attempt to transfer or import it to our region would not respect the reality of our struggles, the identity or history of the mobilisations in our hemisphere," argued the NGOs opposed to imitating the Copenhagen civil society forum.
The split among the Mexican NGOs came at a May 12 meeting in Mexico City, when it became impossible to overcome the differences on how to best represent the interests of the people at the Cancún summit.
On one side are the Klimaforum10 organising committee and about 50 Mexican NGOs, and on the other are the Mexican affiliates of big international groups -- including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Oxfam -- and the usual leaders of local environmentalism, such as the Mexican Centre for Environmental Law.
Gustavo Ampugnani, Greenpeace's Latin American policy coordinator, played down the discord.
"They are two spaces that coexist. Perhaps some are more interested in influencing the official negotiations, while others have lost faith in that process," Ampugnani told IPS, referring to organising committee member Valencia's harsh criticism of the role played by the major international environmental groups in the UN-sponsored talks.
The dispute generated concern among some of the European NGOs planning to participate in Cancún. They are hoping the situation can be resolved, and avoid the creation of two opposing forums claiming to represent global civil society -- as was predicted at the divisive May planning meeting.
Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jun 4, 2010 (IPS) - With less than six months before Mexico hosts the next global climate change summit, Mexican environmental organisations hosting the parallel civil society forum are divided on how to carry it out -- which some fear could ultimately weaken their role at the negotiating table.
The differences are centred on the scenario for bringing together non- governmental organisations (NGOs) in Mexico's Caribbean resort city of Cancún, where the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.
At the COP 15 summit held in Copenhagen last December, the NGOs organised the Kilmaforum09, and some of the Mexican environmental groups want to repeat that formula, while many others want an approach that better reflects the Mexican and Latin American reality.
The disagreements "arise primarily because of power imbalances," Miguel Valencia, one of the 10 members of the Klimaforum 2010 Mexican organising committee, told IPS.
"The big international NGOs, like Greenpeace and Oxfam, are well connected and tolerate too many things from the governments. They accept programmes and issues in the summit negotiations which are unacceptable to the social movements," he said.
Following the failure of the official Copenhagen summit, a group of 30 Danish NGOs passed the Klimaforum baton to representatives of Mexican NGOs. Last December, the parallel forum, also known as the Peoples' Climate Summit, involved some 50,000 activists in more than 300 events.
The organising committee was established in February and meetings immediately began with Mexican NGOs to work together to create a civil society space for the Cancún summit.
The first major open meeting took place during the Peoples' Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, Apr. 20-22.
At that event, a group of Latin American NGOs issued a statement saying, "While we respect and value the experience of the Klimaforum, it responds to the European, and more specifically, Danish, context."
"An attempt to transfer or import it to our region would not respect the reality of our struggles, the identity or history of the mobilisations in our hemisphere," argued the NGOs opposed to imitating the Copenhagen civil society forum.
The split among the Mexican NGOs came at a May 12 meeting in Mexico City, when it became impossible to overcome the differences on how to best represent the interests of the people at the Cancún summit.
On one side are the Klimaforum10 organising committee and about 50 Mexican NGOs, and on the other are the Mexican affiliates of big international groups -- including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Oxfam -- and the usual leaders of local environmentalism, such as the Mexican Centre for Environmental Law.
Gustavo Ampugnani, Greenpeace's Latin American policy coordinator, played down the discord.
"They are two spaces that coexist. Perhaps some are more interested in influencing the official negotiations, while others have lost faith in that process," Ampugnani told IPS, referring to organising committee member Valencia's harsh criticism of the role played by the major international environmental groups in the UN-sponsored talks.
The dispute generated concern among some of the European NGOs planning to participate in Cancún. They are hoping the situation can be resolved, and avoid the creation of two opposing forums claiming to represent global civil society -- as was predicted at the divisive May planning meeting.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests Not for Absorbing Carbon, Say Activists
CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests Not for Absorbing Carbon, Say Activists - IPS ipsnews.net As in the Canadian Boreal Agreement.
Climate Justice Treks from Cochabamba to Cancún
Climate Justice Treks from Cochabamba to Cancún - IPS ipsnews.net
Currently, the concentration of this greenhouse gas is 387 ppm. According to scientists, if it cannot be reduced to 350 ppm or less, the global average temperature will rise more than two degrees Celsius -- with catastrophic environmental, social and economic consequences.
The delegates in Bonn also agreed to discuss a 50-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries for the second period of commitments under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, from 2013 to 2017.
They also agreed to bring in the concept of the rights of Mother Earth, the perspectives of indigenous peoples, and the issues associated with human migration spurred by climate change.
At the core of the official negotiations is determining just how far the wealthy countries are willing to reduce their greenhouse emissions.
The draft text also covers some of the Cochabamba meet's more controversial demands: the exclusion of market mechanisms in forestation activities, and opposition to converting natural
Currently, the concentration of this greenhouse gas is 387 ppm. According to scientists, if it cannot be reduced to 350 ppm or less, the global average temperature will rise more than two degrees Celsius -- with catastrophic environmental, social and economic consequences.
The delegates in Bonn also agreed to discuss a 50-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries for the second period of commitments under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, from 2013 to 2017.
They also agreed to bring in the concept of the rights of Mother Earth, the perspectives of indigenous peoples, and the issues associated with human migration spurred by climate change.
At the core of the official negotiations is determining just how far the wealthy countries are willing to reduce their greenhouse emissions.
The draft text also covers some of the Cochabamba meet's more controversial demands: the exclusion of market mechanisms in forestation activities, and opposition to converting natural
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