Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin challenged the United States to participate fully in the climate treaty process as he opened the ministerial segment of the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Montreal, Canada. "Climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response. Yet there are nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish the urgency or dismiss the science, or declare, either in word or indifference, that this is not our problem to solve. Well, let me tell you, it is our problem to solve," he said. He singled out the United States by name at a later press conference.

After a considerable amount of grandstanding, the ministerial meeting reached agreement on the way forward, although it did take an extra day of negotiations. "This has been one of the most productive UN climate change conferences ever. Our success in implementing the Kyoto Protocol, improving the Convention and Kyoto, and innovating for tomorrow led to an agreement on a variety of issues. This plan sets the course for future action on climate change," concluded Richard Kinley, acting head of the climate treaty secretariat. The major agreement reached in Montreal concerned the signatories to the Kyoto Protocol alone. This gives the Kyoto members seven years to negotiate and ratify accords on the post-2012 phase, extending the current emissions control commitments.

Following a parallel track, a broader group of nations, including the United States, has agreed to non-binding talks on future cooperation. This will be a global "dialogue", not restricted to the industrialized nations. Negotiations leading to new emissions control commitments are explicitly ruled out. According to the COP-11 Decision, the dialogue should, amongst other things, "identify approaches which would support, and provide the enabling conditions for, actions put forward voluntarily by developing countries that promote local sustainable development and mitigate climate change in a manner appropriate to national circumstances, including concrete actions to enable countries, in particular developing countries, to manage and adapt to climate change."

More information

• BBC
• CBS
• Reuters
• Reuters

• Press release, UNFCCC
• Earth Negotiations Bulletin, daily reports
• On the Web: The climate negotiations

According to George Mkondiwa, of the Ministry of Lands, Housing, Physical Planning and Surveys of Malawi, the time when Malawians were able to feed themselves, after independence in 1964, is long gone. "As I speak, some five million Malawians, nearly half of the entire population, face starvation and require food aid," said Mkondiwa. "The more vulnerable sections of the population are subsisting on unpalatable wild foods." Mkondiwa was addressing a Development and Adaptation Days event, held alongside the climate convention sessions in Montreal, Canada.

Last year, Mkondiwa said, farmers in Malawi who planted during the first rains watched their plants scorch as the rains were interrupted for long periods. "Everyone is asking such questions as, 'Is this due to climate change or not… and what proof do you have?', he continued. "I can assure you that everyone that is experiencing these adverse effects first hand, that indeed the patterns and trends in climate have changed in the last decades. While local scientists have not yet published their findings in the journal Science, we don’t think there is any doubt that this is due to climate change. Malawi does not have the luxury to wait, for instance, for scientific research to prove some indelible link between climate change and recent droughts, because people are dying now."

More information

• ENS

• Development and Adaptation Days Bulletin

One hundred villagers from Lateu, in northern Vanuatu, have been forced to move to higher ground by recurrent flooding, with the coastline eroding two to three metres a year. According to Taito Nakalevu of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, "We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands. These are normal events, but it is the frequency that is abnormal and a threat to livelihoods. People are being forced to build sea walls and other defenses not just to defend their homes, but to defend agricultural land." The United Nations Environment Programme considers that the village "has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harm's way as a result of climate change."

The news of the relocation was announced at a meeting aimed at building bridges between two vulnerable groups - Arctic peoples and those living in small island developing states - held alongside the climate treaty sessions in Montreal, Canada. "What is at stake here is not just the extinction of animals," said Sheila Watt Cloutier, of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, "but the extinction of Inuit as a hunting culture. Climate change in the Arctic is a human issue, a family issue, a community issue, and an issue of cultural survival. The joining of circumpolar peoples with Pacific Island and Caribbean States is surely part of the answer in addressing these issues. Many small voices can make a loud noise."

More information

Background

• ENS
• ABC News Online
• Reuters

• Reuters
• Scotsman
• Press release, UNEP/GRID-Arendal