Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The Eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Madrid from the 3rd to the 14th September. The conference agreed a ten-year action plan to combat desertification but, despite negotiations over-running on the final day, no agreement on finance was reached. Japan and the United States opposed a budget increase. "This was not the outcome we had hoped for," said Spanish environment minister Cristina Narbona. "We are going to work hard to get over this sole obstacle," she continued.

The link between desertification and climate change was a major theme of the meeting. "These two issues are very intimately related in the way you can describe them as two halves of a coin," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). "Climate change already has had a major impact on desertification and what the scientists are telling us is that if we fail on climate change the impact in terms of desertification is going to be much worse because you'll see changes in rainfall pattern leading to more desertification," he continued.

Tavau Teii, deputy prime minister of Tuvalu, has called for urgent action to combat global warming before his nation sinks beneath the waves. "The alternative is to turn ourselves into fish and live under water," he said. "All countries must make an effort to reduce their emissions before it is too late for countries like Tuvalu."

Damage to coral reefs is threatening fish stocks. Underground fresh water supplies, at risk from drought, are being contaminated by seawater. Annual spring tides appear to be getting higher, increasing coastal erosion, and cyclones are becoming more ferocious. "We'll try and maintain our own way of living on the island as long as we can," Teii promised, but "if the time comes we should leave the islands, there is no other choice but to leave."

Meili Snow Mountain, a major tourist location in China, will be devoid of snow within 80 years if climate trends continue, warns Liu Jiaxun of the Meteorological Bureau of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Melting ice would have devastating effects downstream, causing floods, farmland damage and mud-rock slides. The loss of water sources would mean river shrinkage and drought.

The water storage capacity of the Yellow River in Maqu, Gansu Province, is already being affected by global warming and over-development, according to the Gansu Provincial Meteorological Bureau. The flow of the Yellow River in Maqu has dropped by 64 per cent, compared with the 1980s. Grassland and wetland areas have shrunk by 45 per cent, so "the region's function as a reservoir for the Yellow River has decreased significantly," said Zhang Qiang from the Meteorological Bureau.