Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Experts at a United Nations-sponsored meeting in the Cook Islands have called for increased support for adaptation planning and implementation for small island developing states (SIDS). Opening the meeting, Cook Islands environment minister Kete Ioane underlined the vulnerability of his nation. "The people in the Cook Islands, like elsewhere in the South Pacific, have witnessed changes such as the increasing salinization of ground water and more frequent flooding. These observations are in line with the latest report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change... Planning for climate change and adapting now is vital for SIDS to save human lives and livelihoods."

Participants recommended an increase in financial and institutional support for adaptation through establishing a process to help SIDS develop prioritized adaptation plans through stakeholder-driven assessment, similar to the National Adaptation Programme of Action initiative for the least developed countries. They also recommended prioritized funding for SIDS under the Global Environment Facility. Regional cooperation should be enhanced using relevant technical agencies in the Caribbean and the Pacific, as well as forthcoming agencies in the Indian Ocean. The Cooks Islands meeting was one of a series of regional adaptation events sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Australia has announced a global fund to curb deforestation in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. "What this initiative will do, in a shorter period of time, is make a greater contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than, in fact, the Kyoto Protocol," said Prime Minister John Howard. He has committed AUD$200 million to the fund, which will combat illegal logging, support tree planting efforts and promote alternatives to the timber industry. The fund will be managed by the World Bank.

Critics accused Howard of hypocrisy. "He is putting AUD$200 million into stopping forest burning in Southeast Asia while he is authorizing forest burning in southern Australia," said Bob Brown of the Greens. Don Henry, head of the Australian Conservation Fund, welcomed the initiative but noted that "it would be much stronger if we ratified the Kyoto Protocol... and got our house in order at home by banning the import of illegal timber and making sure we protect our old growth forests."

One person in ten worldwide lives less than ten metres above sea level and close to the coast, an 'at risk' zone for flooding and storm damage associated with global warming. Three-quarters of these people are in Asia. The new assessment comes from a report from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London, United Kingdom. "If you are in that zone you need to take the issues of sea-level rise seriously," warns Gordon McGranahan of IIED.

The report concludes that settlements in coastal lowlands are especially vulnerable. Of the more than 180 countries with populations in the at-risk zone, about 70 per cent have cities of more than five million people that extend into it, such as Tokyo, New York, Mumbai, Shanghai, Jakarta and Dhaka. "Migration away from the zone at risk will be necessary but costly and hard to implement, so coastal settlements will also need to be modified to protect residents," McGranahan said.