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Africa-wide Civil Society Climate Change Initiative for Policy Dialogues - ACCID
- News Digest - |
| Week ending 9 October 2009 |
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Cameroon: Gearing up for Copenhagen Inter Press Service, 5 October 2009 Yaounde: “Developed countries have failed to respect the Kyoto Protocol which compelled them to reduce latest 2008 emissions of greenhouse gases by five percent. There is therefore need for new engagements to be taken at the Copenhagen Summit.” Decisive words from Cameroon's minister for the environment, Pierre Hele... Kikwete in plea to save planet earth The Citizen, 5 October 2009 Dar es Salaam: President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday called on the rich nations to spearhead global efforts to save planet earth from the adverse effects of climate change. He said the developed countries, which are responsible for much of the pollution blamed for global warming, must act decisively to mitigate the consequences by providing the technology and funds... Southern Africa in for 10°C temperature rise The Weekender, 5 October 2009 Johannesburg: Without global cuts in carbon emissions, average temperatures in southern Africa could increase as much as 10°C as early as 2060, according to a study released by the UK's Meteorological Office. The study is based on a range of models, and predicts an average global temperature increase of 4°C by 2060... Governors' global climate summit backs treaty with teeth Environment News Network, 5 October 2009 Los Angeles: At the Governors' Global Climate Summit, 30 governors, premiers, mayors and senior officials from around the world and the United Nations declared that workable solutions to global warming exist and they want a strong climate deal to emerge from negotiations in Copenhagen this December... Lula: No more ‘second class’ Newsweek, 5 October 2009 It's a long way from Brazil's starving northeast to the UN but Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva knows every step. The peasant's son is now the heralded leader of a regional powerhouse and a self-designated spokesman for emerging nations everywhere. Lula talked to NEWSWEEK's Mac Margolis about Brazil's rise, clean energy, the economic crisis, and what poor countries can teach the superpowers... WWF calls for strict global ‘carbon budget’ Engineering News, 5 October 2009 Johannesburg: Coinciding with the global climate change discussions currently taking place in Bangkok, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released an offering to governments for discussion, entitled ‘Sharing the effort under a global carbon budget’, and called for strict implementation of a global carbon budget between now and 2050... A radical solution to climate change The Weekender, 5 October 2009 Johannesburg: A report released by the UK's Royal Society last month presents climate change and the issues surrounding it in direct and unequivocal terms: climate change is a reality, with global temperatures expected to rise between 2°C and 4°C this century. If the world's governments do not make a concerted and meaningful effort to reduce carbon emissions, the planet's only hope may lie in the untested, and possibly dangerous, science of geo-engineering... Chopping at the trees of life Mail and Guardian, 6 October 2009 Blantyre: Malawi's rural poor don't know much about the science of climate change, but they know how it is affecting them: a slow slide deeper into poverty in an inexorable cycle of heat, hunger and HIV/Aids... UN's forest protection scheme at risk from organised crime, experts warn The Guardian, 6 October 2009 London: A revolutionary UN scheme to cut carbon emissions by paying poorer countries to preserve their forests is a recipe for corruption and will be hijacked by organised crime without safeguards, a Guardian investigation has found. The UN, the World Bank, the UK and individuals, including Prince Charles, have strongly backed UN plans to expand the global carbon market to allow countries to trade the carbon stored in forests... Zambian government considers compensating forest-dependent communities The Post, 6 October 2009 Lusaka: Compensating forest-dependent communities through provision of alternative energy sources has been proposed as one of the key measures required to address the problem of climate change. In a statement, tourism minister Catharine Namugala said the ministry was advocating the UN supported-Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme, to go beyond pilot stage... Uganda registers first forestry project in Africa to reduce global warming emissions World Bank, 6 October 2009 Kampala: Uganda has become the first country in Africa to undertake a reforestation project that will help reduce global warming emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The Nile Basin Reforestation Project is a ground-breaking project being implemented by Uganda's National Forestry Authority in association with local community organizations... Africa parliaments to foster food policy Daily Nation, 6 October 2009 Nairobi: Parliamentary committees on trade and agriculture will benefit from an agreement aimed at empowering them to formulate laws supportive of small scale farmers. At the weekend in South Africa, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA) announced a new partnership to support African parliamentarians... African farmers suffer hardship as climate worsens Reuters, 6 October 2009 Cape Town: African farmers said on Monday floods and droughts expected to worsen with climate change have already brought poor harvests, and women workers are turning to prostitution and falling victim to HIV/AIDS. Testifying at the first pan-African climate hearings, the farmers' stories will be relayed at December's climate talks in Copenhagen... Peirce: Cities and the Copenhagen global summit Denver Post, 6 October 2009 Denver: “All eyes” will be on the world's national governments and the new climate reduction goals they'll agree to at the Copenhagen global summit this December. But 20-20 eyesight suggests that cities are equally crucial. Why? Cities are now home to half the world's population. Cities account for an astounding 80 percent of the world's total output of greenhouse gases... Technocratic diktat is no way to guide SA's development Business Day, 7 October 2009 Johannesburg: Secunda is a useful place to start to put flesh on the debate about the proposed national planning commission. Sasol's Secunda plant gives SA the dubious distinction of hosting the biggest single source of global- warming CO2 in the southern hemisphere - not a good place to be... Resource crunch signals larger ecological crisis Inter Press Service, 7 October 2009 Washington: How would development programmes look if viewed from the position of scarcity, especially the scarcity of food, water, and energy? And with a growing deficit between the demand for these resources and their supply, do policy-makers have the tools needed to foster resilience in resource-strapped developing countries? These were among questions posed by participants at a recent Washington-based forum on Global Resource Security... The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use The Guardian, 7 October 2009 London: It's taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change... Parliamentarians urge greater efforts on land degradation IDN-InDepthNews, 7 October 2009 Beunos Aires: Besides the tasks of maintaining peace and avoiding wars between and within countries, our planet is faced with two challenges in this century: the fight against poverty and against climate change through sustainable development paths -- challenges which are sharpened by the current economic crisis and cannot be tackled without addressing food security and desertification issues... Rich countries framing climate debate to suit themselves: India Thaindian.com, 7 October 2009 Bangkok: Rich countries have been framing the climate debate to suit themselves rather than looking at the way global warming affects most of the world, which is why a global treaty is proving elusive, India’s top climate negotiator said here Tuesday. “They don't talk about equity, they only talk of how to protect their lifestyles,” the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran told a group of Indian NGO representatives... EU, Brazil eye climate partnership ahead of Copenhagen Earth Times, 7 October 2009 Stockholm: The European Union and Brazil pledged Tuesday to join forces on fighting climate change in an attempt to set the framework for a global deal in Copenhagen in December. It is the strongest link-up to date between powers in the developed and developing worlds, and marks a joint bid to seize the initiative in a debate which many observers see as dominated by the United States, India and China... Global recession linked to drop in carbon emissions Mail and Guardian, 7 October 2009 Bangkok: The global recession revealed its first hint of a silver lining when the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that carbon emissions could fall in 2009 by as much as 3%. This is the biggest decline in the last 40 years, and presented a much welcomed boon to reducing climate change... Busa calls for sustainable and balanced climate change deal Engineering News, 7 October 2009 Johannesburg: Business should play a positive role in creating a new global climate change agreement that would be “sustainable and more successful than the Kyoto Protocol”, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said... Vorsprung durch technik Mail and Guardian, 8 October 2009 Johannesburg: Think 1.8-million jobs in the environmental sector with 8% of GDP accounting for green technologies. “Going green” in Germany has developed into an economic sector of its own. The side effects: contributing to a healthier environment and taking global responsibility... Cholera, climate change and El Niño Irin, 8 October 2009 Johannesburg: Cholera is not only linked to climate change, it also has an El Niño angle. For instance, Papua New Guinea, an island state in the Pacific Ocean, recorded its first cholera cases in 50 years in 2009, which also happens to be an El Niño year. The periodic flow of warm sea water across the surface of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, called El Niño, can lead to higher atmospheric temperatures and heavy rains... Climate change is a silent disaster Ghana News Agency, 8 October 2009 Accra: Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, has noted that climate change was a ‘silent disaster’ affecting all Ghanaians and called on the media to pay more attention to issues pertaining to climate change... Lester Brown: “We can't afford to let the planet get much hotter” Inter Press Service, 8 October 2009 Uxbridge: Lester Brown says his views sometimes appear extreme - because the mainstream media largely doesn't understand the urgency and challenges in avoiding catastrophic climate change. The founder and president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, he is also considered by many to be one of the world's most influential thinkers... China comes out in public support of Indian idea in climate talks Thaindian.com, 8 October 2009 Bangkok: “Each person is entitled to his fair share of global atmospheric space,” China's chief climate negotiator Yu Qingtai said Wednesday, publicly placing for the first time Chinese support to this concept formulated by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh... Parliament to receive climate change report soon Ghana News Agency, 8 October 2009 Accra: The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST) would soon present a draft report on climate change to parliament. The document, after consideration by parliament, would become Ghana's policy on climate to be presented at the United Nation's Climate Change Conference... Africa fund vital Daily Nation, 9 October 2009 Nairobi: The creation of a special Africa fund is critical if the continent is to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, a Kenya environmentalist said Thursday. National Environmental Management Authority director, Dr Muusya Mwinzi, said the continent was likely to lose out greatly if it didn’t push for the creation of this fund... Eskom gets wind of new energy plan IOL, 9 October 2009 Durban: Power utility Eskom expects to move more rapidly next year into renewable energy from solar and wind sources and also to tap cleaner coal technologies to reduce its carbon footprint, an official said. Eskom relies on coal for 90 percent of its power generation, but has vowed to invest in renewable energy and more efficient coal technologies to help improve the carbon record of South Africa, now the world's 12th largest polluter... Developing nations refuse to ditch Kyoto Protocol Inter Press Service, 9 October 2009 Bangkok: As the countdown continues towards a United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, a seemingly intractable tussle between negotiators from the developing and developed world has begun to take shape over international commitments to slash greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions... |
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Africa-wide Civil Society Climate Change Initiative for Policy Dialogues - ACCID
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