Odds against Africa's united bid for carbon justice
Daily Nation
Nairobi: Only a day before the curtains fall on the two-week UN climate talks in Copenhagen, Africa seems certain to come out empty-handed. Despite a rare show of force and unity in any global negotiations, Africa, together with other developing countries, is at the precipice of seeing her efforts evaporate into thin air...

Africa not prepared to accept empty words in Copenhagen: Ethiopian PM
Xinhua
Addis Ababa: Africa is not prepared to accept empty words and agreements that undermine its fundamental interest, state media reported Wednesday, citing Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. “Africa loses more than most if there is no agreement on climate change,” the official Ethiopian News Agency quoted Meles as saying at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit...

Africa, backed by EU, tables climate fund
AFP
Copenhagen: The African group of nations, backed by the European Union, tabled a plan at UN climate talks Wednesday for rich countries to help developing ones cope with global warming and green their economies. Put forward by Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, who heads the group, the proposal calls for a three-year, 30 billion dollars “fast-start” fund starting in 2010...

African leaders call for the AfDB to play a key role for Africa
African Development Bank
In speeches delivered on 16 December 2009 in Copenhagen, African leaders have called for an increased presence of the AfDB in Africa on climate change. These leaders, including Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize and Co-Chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, wish that African leading institutions, such as the AfDB, plays a central role...

John Nduna hopeful for the right decision
Reuters AlertNet
Newly appointed Action by Churches Together (ACT) General Secretary John Nduna is a wanted man. The former banker, who went into the humanitarian sector in 1990, is wanted in every corner of the big hall at Bella Centre. It is obvious that behind the halls of negotiations, Nduna brilliantly handles requests for press interviews and the need to attend dozens of consultations...

Climate change talks badly handled: Indian Minister
Rediff
Regretting the absence of an agreed text just a day ahead of the summit level talks at the climate change meet in Copenhagen, India has said the entire process of negotiations have been ‘very badly handled’ but made it clear that the developing countries were not to be blamed for it. “Unfortunately, I feel that this entire conference, the entire process has been very, very badly handled,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said after India met other BASIC countries -- Brazil, South Africa and China -- for almost three hours last night to discuss the plan of action as very little work could be done on the two texts that parties have actually been working on for more than a week...

EU woos emerging nations for climate alliance
Reuters
Paris: European leaders are courting some African, Asian and Latin American nations to counter the clout of China and the United States at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, French officials said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his EU allies were wary of letting Beijing present itself as a spokesman for emerging economies, they said...

New York Times: Two days and counting
New York Times
New York: Most of the news from Copenhagen is grim. With only two days left to go, negotiations for a new climate treaty were stumbling toward stalemate. We hope President Obama and other leaders will realize how much is at stake and pull off a last-minute breakthrough. The talks appear to have produced at least one positive development: a tentative agreement under which rich countries would pay poorer countries to save the world's rain forests...

Climate change, a ticking time bomb for global food security
ReliefWeb
Geneva: The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, warned Wednesday that only climate policies that are deeply rooted in a human rights regime can guarantee that the impacts upon the most vulnerable will be minimized. “Climate change is a ticking time bomb for global food security,” said De Schutter as the Copenhagen conference on climate change approaches its end...

An early warning system for droughts
Irin
Copenhagen: Aid agencies will soon be able to learn about the onset of a drought two to three weeks after it starts, giving them a heads-up to plan relief, a senior World Meteorological Organization (WMO) official announced at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen. At present, the limitations of the indices used to measure dry periods mean agencies only become aware of a drought when they are in the midst of it, said Mannava Sivakumar, director of WMO's Agricultural Meteorology Division...

Drought and its impact on food security
ReliefWeb
More frequent and severe droughts caused by climate change are a challenge to ensuring food security around the globe. To help countries cope with this hazard, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is developing a monitoring system that can provide early warning of drought, determine its severity, and deliver that information to farmers in a timely manner...

Underwriting a global reforestation program
The Japan Times
Singapore: Where does Southeast Asia rank in greenhouse-gas emissions, a key focal point of the international climate change negotiations? The short answer is that the region is an important source of worldwide emissions, mainly from deforestation. And it is expected to become a bigger source in the future...

Climate talks near deal to save forests
New York Times
Copenhagen: Negotiators have all but completed a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests, and in some cases, other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change. Environmental groups have long advocated such a compensation program because forests are efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas linked to global warming...

Prince Charles Copenhagen speech: ‘The eyes of the world are upon you’
The Guardian
Copenhagen: We live in times of great consequence and, therefore, of great opportunity. With issues of such magnitude, it is easy to focus solely on the challenges, the worst-case scenarios, the what-ifs of failure. But take a moment to consider the opportunities if we succeed. Imagine a healthier, safer and more sustainable, economically robust world...