Tiempo Climate Newswatch

"Instead of being economically defensive, let us start being more politically courageous," said Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, addressing the 2006 Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference "must send a clear, credible signal that the world’s political leaders take climate change seriously," he continued. "The question is not whether climate change is happening, but whether, in the face of this emergency, we ourselves can change fast enough." He attacked those critical of the case for action. "A few diehard sceptics continue trying to sow doubt. They should be seen for what they are: out of step, out of arguments and out of time." Calling on the governments of the industrialized nations to "do much more to bring their emissions down," he referred to a "frightening lack of leadership" in meeting the challenge of climate change. Finally, he introduced the new Nairobi Framework.

The Nairobi Framework has been assembled by six United Nations agencies to help developing nations, particularly in Africa, obtain increased funding to promote clean energy technology, such as wind and hydropower, and manage the climate threat. As part of the initiative, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have set up a partnership to build country capacity to take part in carbon finance funds and to decrease vulnerability to climate change. "Investments in roads, railways, hospitals, fisheries and power systems are underway across the sub-Saharan African region but few if any are being planned with future climatic impacts in mind," said Achim Steiner, UNEP head. "Some of these projects, for example a new dam, may be increasingly vulnerable as a result of more intense droughts whereas others - for example a coastal road scheme - may be at risk from sea level rise," he continued. "We need in-depth studies and national adaptation plans but we also need a rapid response service so that a minister, faced with a planning application, can pick up the phone and have ‘climate proofing’ expertise on his or her doorstep within a matter of days."

The 2006 Climate Change Conference re-affirmed the goal of agreeing an extension to the Kyoto Protocol for the post-2012 period. This would be achieved "as early as possible and in time to ensure that there is no gap" before the new agreement comes into force. No deadline was set, disappointing some observers. "Ministers are simply not reflecting the urgency which is being felt in the real world," charged Catherine Pearce of Friends of the Earth UK. "We are still not seeing the bold leadership which is needed here." There has been discussion of increasing flexibility within the post-2012 agreement in order to draw in Kyoto outsiders such as the United States and major developing nations such as China and India. "We have to make it attractive for countries to take part," commented Yvo de Boer, head of the Climate Change Secretariat. "I see people looking at a larger menu of options and I find that very constructive." Finally, conference participants agreed a minimal review of existing measures under the Kyoto Protocol, to take place in 2008. Developing countries had been concerned that the review might result in demands that they adopt binding emissions targets.

An international team of researchers has concluded that the world's forests may have reached a "turning point." "Forest area and biomass are still being lost in such important countries as Brazil and Indonesia, but an increasing number of nations show gains," the report states. The Forest Identity report shows a rise in biomass and carbon storage capacity over the past 15 years in 22 of the 50 countries studied. "This great reversal in land use could stop the styling of a 'Skinhead Earth' and begin a great restoration of the landscape by 2050, expanding the global forest by ten per cent - about 300 million hectares, the area of India," said Jesse Ausubel at Rockefeller University in New York, United States.

The report cites government policy, in forest protection and the preservation of farmland, as a major factor in reducing deforestation trends. In Europe, timber imports, sustainable forestry, energy technology, farm technology and migration from rural to urban areas have played a part. Pekka Kauppi at the University of Helsinki, Finland, comments that "without depopulation or impoverishment, increasing numbers of countries are experiencing transitions in forest area and density. While complacency would be misplaced, our insights provide grounds for optimism about the prospects for returning forests."

A new report from the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change concludes that the vulnerability of the African continent to climate change is even greater than previously estimated. Thirty per cent of Africa's coastal infrastructure could be inundated and between 25 and 40 per cent of species' habitats lost by 2085. By that time, cereal crop yields could have dropped by up to five per cent, with yields of subsistence crops also declining. "We are already seeing climate-related changes in my country," said lead author Balgis Osman Elasha of the Climate Change Unit in the Sudanese Ministry of the Environment. "The Gum Arabic belt, an economically important crop, has shifted southwards below latitude 14 degrees north and the rains which used to occur from mid June to the end of August now start in mid July until the end of September with important ramifications for agriculture and livelihoods."

Responding to the report, Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, said that "climate change is underway and the international community must respond by offering well targeted assistance to those countries in the front-line which are facing increasing impacts such as extreme droughts and floods and threats to infrastructure from phenomena like rising sea levels. Part of the action, part of the adaptation response and part of this responsibility to Africa, must include significant improvements in Africa’s climate and weather monitoring capabilities." Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization observed that "Africa is the largest of all tropical landmasses and, at 30 million square km, is about a fifth of the world’s total land area. Yet the climate observing system in Africa is in a far worse and deteriorating state than that of any other continent."