Source:
The Corner House
The book "Upsetting the Offset" engages critically with the political economy of carbon markets presenting a range of case studies and critiques from around the world, showing how the scam of carbon markets affects the lives of communities. March 2010. (PDF).
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Climate change is widely considered to be one of the gravest threats to the sustainability of the planet's environment, the well-being of its people and the strength of its economies. Mainstream scientists agree that the Earth's climate is changing from the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, that result from such essential human activities as electricity generation, transportation and agriculture.
They also agree that industrialized countries —those with very high per capita GHG emissions— need to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, improve agricultural practices, and conserve forests and other ecosystems that absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Developing countries, whose per capita emissions are generally much lower, are concerned with meeting the immediate energy needs of their people rather than reducing their emissions, but the time is right for them to also begin pursuing a more sustainable path of development.
The international response to climate change started with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Agreed to in 1992, the Convention is a framework for action to limit or reduce GHG emissions. In 1997, 159 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention, committing industrialized countries to quantified targets for abating their emissions of GHGs.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the US - by far the world's largest emitter of GHGs – was meant not only to slow down but also reverse the growth of its emissions to reach a target level of seven per cent below its 1990 emissions. In March 2001, US President George W. Bush de facto reneged on this undertaking by the previous administration, which had signed the Kyoto Protocol. He declared that he would propose his own strategy, and not seek ratification of the protocol, because he was worried about its effects on the US economy. Instead, the Bush administration came up with its own climate change strategy: one that, by 2012, is likely to result in a 30 per cent increase, over the 1990 levels, in the emission of greenhouse gases.
Over the last years, the centre of the debate on climate change has revolved around the so called “flexible” clauses of the Kyoto Protocol. In order to persuade the developed world to sign the convention, the protocol includes a “Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM) that allows the emission of a generous quantity of GHGs provided that countries commit themselves to investing in programs that compensate for their contamination. Namely, these consist in forestation and the preservation of green areas capable of absorbing carbon dioxide and transforming it into oxygen through the process of photosynthesis: the so called “carbon sinks”.
Although many NGOs and international organizations such as the World Bank agree that this mechanism provides a satisfactory solution to all parts, environmental groups and green organizations claim that no real improvement on climate change will be made if there is no reduction of GHGs emission. Furthermore, many argue that the CDM in fact bargains the right to contaminate thus leading to yet another form of commerce: the “carbon trade”, which is far from tackling the root causes of the problem.
Despite the fact that the effects of climate change affect the world as a whole, the south is increasingly turning into the “carbon sink” of the north, which causes serious alterations in its biodiversity and hinders the possibility of sustainable development.
In recent years, several countries have been promoting the use of biofuels - liquid fuels produced from biomass grown in large-scale monocultures, also called 'agrofuels'- as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Promoters claim biofuels provide significant greenhouse gas emissions savings, but environmental NGOs have increasingly warned that the rush to agrofuels encourages intensive, industrial agriculture, providing a new promotional vehicle for GM crops, and posing a serious threat to food sovereignty. Indeed, the destruction of rainforests, peatlands and other ecosystems to make way for agrofuel plantations may well accelerate global warming.
The site contains maps and graphics taken from the IPCC illustrating scientists predictions on just how much global temperatures may rise over the next century.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the IPCC in 1988. The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.
The Cyberlibrary provides access to authoritative news, views, briefing material, publications, data, analysis tools and educational resources on the subject of climate change, with particular reference to the situation of the developing world.
Independent organization dedicated to providing credible information, straight answers and innovative solutions in the effort to address global climate change. US.
This new report exposes that the company knew of the environmental dangers of gas flaring in Nigeria more than fifteen years ago, but chose not to stop flaring purely for financial reasons. (PDF). July 2009.
Climate change is a global crisis now and for the foreseeable future. Africa is impacted disproportionately and this situation will only deteriorate without immediate and comprehensive solutions.
Despite the very recent ratification of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the rhetoric that accompanied it, Indigenous Peoples' representatives were not allowed to present their statement at the opening of the present COP. December 2007.
Ahead of the UN climate talks, 3-14 December in Bali, Friends of the Earth International launched a new report that collects nine testimonies from community members around the globe who have dramatic first-hand experience of the devastating impacts of climate change. November 2007.
Climate change challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem says the new UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008. November 2007.
New reports released ahead of the UN climate change conference being held in Nairobi, Kenya from 6 to 17 November 2006 highlight the urgency of tackling the problem while addressing the difficult actions that are needed to avert a global catastrophe. There is no doubt that climate change is fast rising up the global agenda. November 2006.
Environmental degradation in general, and climate change in particular,
represent one of the biggest threats to human health, particularly the health
of younger people in the future and that of future generations. Yet repairing
the damage and preventing further harm to the environment are nowhere near
priorities of local, national and international public health strategies. (PDF document). July 2005.
This report states that climate change threatens to increase the number of the world's hungry by reducing the area of land available for farming. The severest impact is likely to be in sub-Saharan African countries, which are the least able to adapt to climate change or to compensate for it through increased food imports. In contrast, industrialized countries on average stand to make gains in production potential as a result of climate change. PDF document. May 2005.
Human development is facing potentially the biggest U-turn in its history. Unsustainable use of fossil fuels is warming our planet quicker than at any time in the past 10,000 years. At the turn of the century, over 160 nations committed themselves to achieving eight ambitious development goals by the year 2015. But nowhere do the targets mention the risk of global warming or the weather-related disasters which it drives. This disaster 'blind spot threatens to jeopardise not only the Millennium Goals, but the development process itself. (PDF document). May 2005.
Whilst meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) poses enormous challenges, climate change will make the task even more difficult. PDF document. March 2005.
Visiting Africa's Sahel region, Jeffrey Sachs says it's clear that climate change is already driving warfare in Ethiopia and Sudan. This time, peacekeepers, sanctions and humanitarian aid are not going to cut it. Instead, the developed world needs to cut its emissions drastically while helping developing countries adapt - and fast.
Mauna Loa is the site of a Hawai’ian observatory which, since 1958, has been measuring the carbon-dioxide concentration of the warm Pacific breezes drifting by its high volcanic hillsides. The term "anomaly" refers to the striking fact that 2002 and 2003 were the first two consecutive years in which the measured carbon-dioxide concentration increased by more than 2 parts per million (ppm).
This report published by the New Economics foundation together with Greenpeace argues that given rich countries' historical responsibility for global warming and the resources at their disposal, the author advocates that funds made available for climate adaptation should be raised substantially.(Pdf document) January 2005.
It’s time for the world to wean itself away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal, the burning of which releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas mainly responsible for global warming. November 2004.
Since the mid 1990s, scientists have been asking if climate change might be abrupt, in other words, it could happen suddenly, over a matter of decades or even years, and be global in extent.
Report published by leading environmental and development organizations such as Oxfam and Greenpeace demanding a global risk assessment of the costs that adaptation to climate change will have in poor nations. October 2004.(pdf document)
Too few financial companies including banks, pension funds and insurance companies are taking the risks and opportunities posed by climate change seriously, members of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Finance Initiatives are warning.
This paper reports how climate in Africa has varied from palaeo time periods to the present, and what changes might be expected in the 21st century. Carbon, water and desertification are also discussed.
It may become necessary to physically move some protected areas due to the impact of climate change, according to a paper from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). "Protected areas are rooted in the concept of permanence: protection works best as a conservation tool if the area remains protected for the foreseeable future. But under climate change, species for which a particular protected area was established may no longer survive there," says the paper (pdf version).
Agnès Sinaï - a freelance journalist and co-author, with Yves Cochet, of Sauver la Terre (Fayard, Paris 2003)- argues that, from the low-lying point of view of Pacific islanders or circumpolar-dwelling Inuit, the Kyoto Protocol seems an exploitative deal.
The lack of access to reliable and clean energy supplies is a major barrier to improving well-being around the globe - there are an estimated 1.6 billion people living in the rural areas of developing countries who lack access to to electricity - but so is dependence on fossil fuels. Climate driven "natural" disasters also threaten far worse. Rather than just failing to improve the human condition, we could be about to witness the great reversal of human progress (pdf version).
Benito Müller argues that attempts to reduce the contribution of human activity to climate-related impacts must now be backed up by measures that focus on responding to those impacts.
While climate change is an environmental problem, the way we deal with it will have a massive impact on economic development and inequality on a global scale. A transfer of wealth and power from the global North to South is essential to averting climate catastrophe, argues Tim Jones, policy officer at the World Development Movement. January 2010.
Minority and indigenous groups across the world are among the hardest hit by climate change and often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters but their plight has yet to be recognised by the international community. March 2008.
Climate change is forcing vulnerable communities in poor countries to adapt to unprecedented climate stress. Rich countries, primarily responsible for creating the problem, must stop harming, by fast cutting their greenhouse-gas emissions, and start helping, by providing finance for adaptation. June 2007.
Africa already has extreme variability of rainfall, and an uneven distribution of water resources. Climate change is expected to increase this variability. September 2006.
Africa has contributed less than any other region to the greenhouse gas emissions that are widely held responsible for global warming. But the continent is also the most vulnerable to the consequences. This is a collection of news and feature articles that describe some of the complex links between the two issues. July 2005.
The electricity sector in the 25 European Union nations is still dominated by large centralised power plants using fossil and nuclear fuels. This sector is responsible for
releasing more than 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and over 2600 tons of dangerous radioactive waste every year. A report released by Greenpeace urges the 10 most contaminating european power plants in Europe to switch to renewable energy in order to meet the minimum Kyoto targets. PDF document. April 2005
This paper proposes that much better management of climate variability is essential if sustainable development is to be achieved in Africa. Individuals need to have better access to climate change information, in order to encourage proactive risk management based on best available information together with incorporation of new skills in seasonal prediction. PDF document. March 2005.
The fact that the world’s climate is changing is now beyond dispute. Global warming is likely to have significant social, as well as environmental, consequences. Developing countries have specific challenges in adapting to these changes. PDF document.
A new report on the need for the poorest countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change says that information on this issue needs to be presented in a form that is readily-understandable by decision makers if it is to be taken seriously at a policy level (pdf format).
Fostered by the oil and climate crisis, agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage amid warnings that the cure might be worse than the disease. See the in-depth report prepared by Choike. April 2008.
Climate actions are going on around the world as TckTckTkck campaign partners join people from all walks of life to call for strong government leadership on climate change as the G8 meeting in L'Aquila unfolds. July 2009.
Political caution is all that the G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy delivered. G8 commitments to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050 have little significance without a far more important mid-term target of 2020. July 2009.
Since the G8 leaders in Gleneagles chose no other than the World Bank to be in charge of financing a "new framework" for addressing the climate change crisis, it is interesting to review some key facts...
As the G8 communique shows, the White House is beginning to move on. Instead of denying that climate change is happening, it is denying that anything difficult needs to be done to prevent it. The other G8 leaders have gone along with this.
The final statement on climate change, issued at the Group of Eight Summit that took place 6-8 July 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland, shows that leaders are still divided and have made no real progress in the fight against climate change. July 2005.
Leading developing countries delivered an open challenge to the G8 nations over proposals to abandon the Kyoto Protocol as the means to contain global climate change.
This briefing examines the relationship between free-market economic forces and climate change policy while scrutinising the rhetoric and reality behind promises on climate made by the most powerful politicians in the world - the G8. It also explores the origins of free-market environmentalism and analyses the conflicts and synergies that arise when the worlds of trade and environment collide.(PDF document). July 2005.
The greenwashing that corporations are now doing as their bit to clean up the environment cannot hide the damage they are causing, in fact, any attempt to contain climate change must tackle the big corporations first. July 2005.
11,000 delegates, 13,000 tonnes of carbon consumed, and two weeks wasted: the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland made only glacial progress towards a new global climate treaty, due to be signed a year from now in Copenhagen. December 2008.
Civil society organizations are calling for an enhanced financial architecture including a new Global Climate Fund to be set up under the control of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that adheres to a set of principles. December 2008.
On the trade-climate connection from a geopolitical angle, Lamy said the biggest problem in the climate negotiations is fairness and equity, for example, between countries with one ton and 20-25 tons of carbon emission per capita. Which countries should curb their emissions is an equity issue. Coercion of developing countries will not work but will create a negative "pushback". September 2008.
The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations takes place in Accra, Ghana, between 21-27 August. See articles and reports. August 2008.
The Bangkok climate change talks, which run from March 31 to April 4 2008, have twin tracks. One deals with commitments made by the developed nations to meet their GhG targets. The second track, open to all countries, begins negotiations for a global environmental treaty after the Kyoto Protocol expires, in 2012. April 2008.
The US was brought back to the fold, but at the cost of excising from the final document- the so-called Bali Roadmap -any reference to the need for a 25 to 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020 to keep the mean global temperature increase to 2.0 to 2.4 degrees Celsius in the 21st century. December 2007
This two-week conference is the first major stage of negotiations for governments, UN agencies and organizations to come up with a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol which will expire in 2012. See the coverage by Choike of this event.
The United Nations on 31 July-2 August 2007 held its first ever General Assembly debate on climate change, marking the rapid rise of this global phenomenon in the international agenda. Everyone agreed the problem is real and serious, but there are wide differences on how to tackle this crisis. August 2007.
Kenya hosted the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 2), in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12), in Nairobi from 6 to 17 November 2006. See special coverage by Choike.
The 4th IPCC Assessment Report released at a major climate meeting in Bangkok has made a compelling case on what global warming means to the planet this century. Environmental groups were, however, deeply concerned about the recommendation for large-scale expansion of biofuels from monocultures, including from GM crops, even though monoculture expansion is a driving force behind the destruction of rainforests and other carbon sinks and reservoirs, thus accelerating climate change. May 2007.
Held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change -COP 10- took place form 6 to 17 December 2004. This is a collection of news and reports from the conference.
Another international forum on climate change is being held in Montreal from 28 November to 9 December 2005: The 11th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11). The hope is to relaunch the debate about what will happen after 2012 - but that task won't be easy. November 2005.
Reducing deforestation is crucial to mitigate climate change, but it mustn't be used as an excuse to continue polluting, says Roman Czebiniak of Greenpeace. July 2009.
News and updates, calendar, information resources, press releases (in pdf format), search box, and information on every Conference and their documents since 1996.
By using Internet communications, the Canada-based IISD covers and reports on international negotiations and broker knowledge gained through collaborative projects with global partners.
Less than three months after he took office as President of the United States George W. Bush sparked off a huge controversy by pulling out of the Kyoto treaty.
Not enough has been said about the people who will be most affected by climate change, especially women. The climate-change debate needs to be reframed, putting people at the centre. Unless climate policies take people into account, they will fail to mitigate climate change or to shield vulnerable populations from the potentially disastrous impacts (State of World Population 2009).
At the 12-day Bangkok Climate Change Talks, which opened Monday 28 September and the latest round in a series of global discussions leading to the Copenhagen conference, the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) is keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings. October 2009.
The statement adopted by the CEDAW at its 44th session from 20 July to 7 August in New York 2009 expressed concern about the absence of a gender perspective in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other global and national policies and initiatives on climate change. August 2009.
The financing instruments and mechanisms committed to climate change activities in mitigation and adaption need to take gender-differentiated impacts into account argues this report.
The first “Gender Action Link” connects gender, international finance and climate change issues. The series aims to link international finance-watcher and gender justice communities through key thematic briefings, concrete case examples, useful action resources and partnership opportunities. (PDF). October 2008.
The study "outlines key linkages between climate change and gender inequality – focusing particularly on adaptation and mitigation policies and practices", and claims that because “women constitute the largest percentage of the world’s poorest people, they are most affected by these changes. (PDF). September 2008.
During a lively interactive discussion on 'gender perspectives on climate change', the emerging issue the Commission had chosen to consider during its current session, a diverse panel of experts cited numerous studies showing that global warming was not a gender-neutral process. March 2008.
WEDO, UNDP, UNEP, and the IUCN launched the Global Gender & Climate Alliance (GGCA) this past December in Bali during the official UN negotiations on climate change. The GGCA was created to ensure that climate change policies, decision-making, and initiatives at the global, regional and national levels are gender responsive. (PDF document).
A world wide coalition of women has drafted position papers with the women's and gender perspective on the most pressing issues negotiated at the ongoing UN climate change conference in Bali. December 2007.
As evidence of climate change becomes ever more compelling, the battle over who gets to frame its causes, effects and solutions will intensify. In popular as well as policy venues, whose voices get heard and whose don't will become a key political issue of our time. Today, at the international policy level, gender is conspicuous by its absence in climate change debates. April 2006
The UN Secretary-General is convening a High-Level Climate Change Event on September 24, 2007 at UN Headquarters in New York. Given that only a few NGOs will be given the opportunity to speak at the SG's event, WEDO prepared a declaration on climate change and gender equality and collected additional inputs from gender experts working on climate change. September 2007.
Climate change does not affect women and men in the same way and it has, and will have, a gender-differentiated impact. Therefore all aspects related to climate change (i.e. mitigation, adaptation, policy development, decision making) must include a gender perspective.
The book "Upsetting the Offset" engages critically with the political economy of carbon markets presenting a range of case studies and critiques from around the world, showing how the scam of carbon markets affects the lives of communities. March 2010. (PDF).
This joint publication of Centre for Civil Society in Durban and Transnational Institute (TNI) explores the impacts of the carbon market in South Africa. Connecting energy privatisation with issues around the enclosure of the atmosphere, this collection of essays gives grounding in the justice implications of the new carbon market. November 2005. (PDF)
The World Bank's new green facelift includes a $2 billion portfolio of trust funds that channel carbon finance from polluting industrialized countries in the global North to some of the most ecologically destructive industries in the global South. (PDF). April 2008.
The Carbon Connection follows the story of two communities in Scotland and Brazil who made their own films about living with the impacts of the trade in carbon dioxide.
Climate change has gone from the realm of debate into the realm of accepted reality. This is proved by the tornados, the hurricanes, the floods and the melting of the polar icecaps. All types of evidence exist about the consequences, and the certainty that actions to solve the problem can not be delayed. Climate change stopped being a scientific question and has moved entirely to the political an obviously also economical scene. April 2007.
Carbon offsets are the modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon conscious public to absolve their climate sins. Scratch the surface, however, and a disturbing picture emerges, where creative accountancy and elaborate shell games cover up the impossibility of verifying genuine climate change benefits, and where communities in the South often have little choice as offset projects are inflicted on them. February 2007.
The scientific evidence proving that climate change is caused by human activities is now overwhelming with the release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Feb. 2. Most advocate immediate and drastic reductions in the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, but many of the most heavily industrialised nations find the economic costs of this prescription hard to swallow. Instead, some, led by the United States, are looking at geo-engineering schemes (large scale attempts to manipulate the environment to produce environmental change). February 2007.
A new book published by the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation together with the international Durban Group for Climate Justice and The Corner House, argues that carbon trading slows the social and technological change needed to cope with global warming by unnecessarily prolonging the world's dependence on oil, coal and gas. October 2006.
The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism was supposedly created to help finance sustainable development projects in the world’s poorest countries. Many of its supporters argued that it would make it possible for these countries to ‘leapfrog’ or skip the process of industrialization to a more sustainable economic model. But most of the money is going to the largest and most industrialized emerging economies. September 2006.
This edition of the Oilwatch Resistance Bulletin is dedicated to review the policies linked to Climate Change, recounting the main climatic disasters that happened during 2005, and an analysis of the COP11 in Montreal. June 2006.
The threat of climate change is real and urgent. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was supposed to be a win-win deal for the North and the South, and an effective way to combat this threat. Under it, the industrialised North got flexibility in achieving its emission reduction targets, in exchange for paying developing countries to shift to cleaner energy sources. But the real story behind the CDM deals is murky. November 2005.
The Protocol's "flexible" market-based mechanisms allow corporate polluters to evade their emissions reduction obligations at home by buying up and trading carbon emission quotas and credits from other countries, projects or industries.
The World Bank Group has emerged as the dominant player in the carbon market created by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.In justifying this self-appointed role, the Bank has claimed that a global carbon market is consistent with its mission to reduce poverty, will promote sustainable development, and finance renewable energy and sustainable forestry projects. This report states why these claims are false. PDF document. May 2005.
An assessment of the loopholes in the Kyoto Protocol indicates that rather than the nominal 5.1% emissions reduction tauted for the protocol a small increase above 1990 levels in both industrial emissions and emissions to the atmosphere can be expected.
Sinks Watch is an initiative of the World Rainforest Movement focusing on tree plantation sinks projects, particularly in areas where land tenure and land use rights are in dispute.
This dossier attempts to address some of the key issues that continue to face all those engaged in the international debate on strategies to mitigate climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol is in danger of becoming the most corporate-friendly environmental treaty in history, not only at the expense of social and political equity between North and South, but also to the detriment of the climate itself.
Farmers (men and women) around the world are joining hands with other social movements, organizations, people and communities to ask for and to develop radical social, economic and political transformations to reverse massive environmental destruction including global warming that is putting at risk the planet's ecosystems and pushing human communities into disasters. November 2007.
Representatives from organizations and peoples’ movements from around the globe came together in Durban, South Africa October 2004 to discuss realistic avenues for addressing climate change. (Pdf document). October 2004.
"I'm not going to let the United States carry the burden for cleaning up the world's air," declared the US presidential candidate George W. Bush, in October 2000. "Only for poisoning it the most," he might have added... By C. E. Karunakaran.
Started as an initiative of a group of Non-governmental Organizations and institutions to lobby and advocate for relevant policy changes on climate change related issues in Africa.
This article summarises findings from a recent report, highlighting that the current climate pilot projects, many of which are housed under the World Bank, are not leading us towards an equitable and effective post 2012 climate architecture envisioned by NGOs. July 2009.
In this paper named "Doubling the Damage", Gender Action spotlights how the World Bank Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), which will exacerbate climate change and disproportionately harm poor women, also neglect gender concerns. (PDF document). April 2009.
While the World Bank pays constant lip service to the importance of sustainability and poverty alleviation in the Clean Development Mechanism, it continually fails to deliver positive results for either the environment or disadvantaged communities in the developing world. In reality, the global carbon market is proving to be simply another weapon used by multinational corporations to accelerate their incursion on the rights of indigenous peoples and small-scale landholders in Latin America. February 2009.
BIC assessment finds that even with important gains in renewable energy and energy efficiency in recent years, the World Bank Group’s overall lending approach to the energy sector does not support developing countries’ transition towards a low-carbon development path. February 2009.
To meet their obligations towards developing countries and repay their climate debt, industrialized countries must agree to appropriately and adequately finance adaptation, mitigation, and technology development and transfer. The World Bank Group is positioning itself to control key financial mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). December 2008.
This new report entitled "Dirty is the new clean: A critique of the World Bank’s Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change" was produced by the Institute for Policy Studies together with Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International and Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale. October 2008.
Ironically, as the Bank positions itself as the “climate bank” the data show that the World Bank, and increasingly its private sector arm, continues to fund, and has in fact significantly increased it’s investment in large-scale, polluting, carbon-intensive projects. July 2008.
During the past year, the World Bank Group has emphasized the global leadership role it hopes to play in addressing climate change and financing for renewable energy. However, a new report finds that the World Bank, despite being tapped by the G8 countries to develop a framework for financing renewable energy sources, fell far short of its own target for increasing financial support for renewable energy and energy efficiency. (PDF document). November 2005.
For many decades, the World Bank's energy lending has focused on centralized, large-scale, grid-based thermal and hydropower projects and on the privatization of public power utilities. A new joint report by international environmental organizations and WB watch groups shows that in spite of many promises to "green" its energy lending over the past 15 years, the World Bank's energy sector portfolio still fails to reap the double dividend of renewable energy technologies that would fight both poverty and climate change. (PDF document). September 2006.
NGOs have expressed serious concerns over the World Bank's proposed US$7-12 billion portfolio of climate investment funds, including criticism that the initiative led by a handful of G8 countries will undermine existing multilateral negotiations on climate change and create conflicting parallel mechanisms for delivering climate-related financing. March 2008.
Environmental NGOs are concerned that the World Bank’s proposed initiatives divert funds away from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process and Kyoto Protocol leaving the majority of developing countries out of the negotiations. April 2008.
Numerous organizations around the world signed this civil society statement opposing the World Bank’s initiative to establish Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) while delagates meet in Bonn, Germany for climate change talks. June 2008.
As the urgency of action on climate change becomes increasingly apparent, attention must be given to the interlinkages between global warming and global trade, which plays a signi¬cant role in the production of greenhouse gases. In countries such as Australia, global trade accounts for up to 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, increasing trade liberalization, promoted by institutions such as the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank has meant that trade-related transport emissions are growing faster than emissions from any other sector. December 2007 (pdf version).
The development of a comprehensive and integrated post-2012 global policy framework is clearly needed. This should be one that reflects both the concerns of developing countries to place their economies on a sustained and sustainable development path and the global concern to substantially reduce greenhouse gases emissions and mitigate and adapt to global warming. (PDF). January 2008.
In the recent Bali consensus the U.S government agreed to overall cutbacks and China, formerly exempt as a developing country, agreed to voluntary cut-backs. But how will Latin America affect climate change and be affected by it? Take a look at the major contributors in the region and the effects it is already feeling. January 2008.
From June 6 to 8, the leaders of the eight most industrialised nations (G8) meet for their annual summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. Climate change is one of the key topics. See coverage by Choike.
The discussion on the future of the international climate regime is a matter of life or death, especially for the poorest people in the world. An analysis of historical responsibility leads to the conclusion that compensation based on ecological debt should be added to a rights-based approach for determining fair shares of environment space. Historical responsibility remains a heated topic of discussion. The main issue that raises questions is how to quantify and distribute this responsibility in the most effective way. This report presents our ideas and recommendations about how to incorporate historical responsibility into a climate framework that will ensure a just transition from the current situation to a more equitable future one. (PDF document). December 2005.
This article looks into the Asia Pacific Partnership for clean development and climate change signed by India, China, South Korea and Japan — all signatories to the multilateral Kyoto Protocol — with two protocol-renegade nations, Australia and the US. September 2005.
The complex ecological balance of our planet, which provides the basis for life itself, is facing unprecedented threats, largely as a consequence of development strategies pursued by humankind. Our very survival may depend on immediate radical action being taken to combat the unsustainable pressures that we have created. September 2005.
It’s getting harder to hide the climate crisis. Global warming threatens to make the international targets on halving global poverty by 2015, the “Millennium Development Goals,” entirely unattainable. The bottom line: there’s nothing much being done by the US government, but it’s a dangerous nothing. August 2005.
India, China and four other nations have agreed to a new climate change pact championed by the United States that advocates new technologies instead of emissions reductions. However, scientists and environmental activists say it will not replace the Kyoto Protocol, and are sceptical it will result in necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, widely blamed for global warming. July 2005.
This article argues that the world's poorest countries have had to reshape their economies for decades to pay service on unprincipled foreign debts. There should therefore be no reason why rich countries cannot do the same to pay off their more real ecological debts.
June 2005.
Five years after discussions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not enough of the agreed actions had occurred for the Kyoto Protocol to be put into practice. During this time, discussions have reduced the positive impacts of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, reducing the potential for developing countries to benefit from future emissions trading. Can the faltering global climate regime still include the needs of developing countries?. PDF document. March 2005.
This report was released at the tenth conference of the parties to the Climate Convention (COP10) held on Buenos Aires in December 2004. It assesses the ways in which the world's leading development institution, the World Bank, entrusted with carrying out the goals of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, has not only failed to live up to this mandate but has actually undermined it. PDF document.
The coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming marks a new step in international efforts to deal with climate change, which more and more people believe to be the world's most serious problem. However, there were reminders from prominent UN leaders and scientists that the treaty only deals with the tip of a giant iceberg and much more needs to be done. March 2005.
While many are celebrating the Kyoto Protocol's entering into force last week, others are finding cause for grave concern. The Durban Group, an international coalition of NGOs, social and environmental activists, communities, scientists and economists concerned about the climate crisis, charged that the 1997 climate treaty not only fails to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert climate catastrophe, but steals from the poor to give to the rich. See their open letter to UN Secretary General.
The United Nations Kyoto agreement on climate change that entered into force on February 16 is only a first modest step towards more drastic greenhouse gas emission cuts needed to address climate change. February 2005.
According to the authors of this article, attention now turns to the crucial next steps: meeting the Kyoto targets and forging a new agreement to cover the period beyond 2012. Moreover, only an agreement that turns climate change from a burden into an opportunity will ensure that Kyoto’s promise is fulfilled.
Former negotiators and other climate experts from developed and developing countries have prepared a set of six “think pieces” examining core challenges in advancing the international climate effort.
A number of civil society organizations including development, environment, gender and youth organizations, faith-based communities, indigenous peoples and social economic justice movements around the world have submitted a joint declaration to the climate change meeting in Copenhagen.(PDF).
On the eve of the climate change summit in Copenhagen this December, momentum for action still falls far short of that needed to avert catastrophe. Africa will suffer consequences out of all proportion to its contribution to global warming, which is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from wealthy countries. November 2009.
A new global climate treaty to be signed in Copenhagen this December is shaping up to have carbon trading at its centre, creating new loopholes to avoid cleaning up the climate writes Oscar Reyes. May 2009.
Climate negotiations kick off in Bonn from 1-12 June under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is set to be intense and highly contentious as Parties chart the outcomes for the Conference of Parties in December this year. June 2009
