Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 07 needs to deliver "a breakthrough in the form of a roadmap for a new international agreement on enhanced global action to fight climate change in the period after 2012," when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires, said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, as the Bali meeting opened. He does not believe that the conference will result in a fully negotiated and agreed climate deal, but it should set the necessary wheels in motion. de Boer believes that the negotiations will need to conclude in 2009 in order to allow time for ratification.

Just what the roadmap should cover was the subject of much debate during the early days of the conference. Japan proposed that it should exclude explicit targets, whilst the European Union's wish list included demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in approving mandatory cuts, strengthening the carbon market and boosting funding to help poor countries adapt. Meanwhile, the Pacific island nations called for swift action. Young Vivian, prime minister of Niue, said he feared the Bali conference would be "talk, talk, talk and meeting, meeting and meeting." "Maybe next year there'll be another disaster and they may still be talking," he said. Forest nations would like to see progress in developing the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) scheme. "My instinct is there will be an agreement on a phased approach where we will start with some countries that are more ready than others," said Hans Verolme of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme.

The mega-deltas of Asia are in the front line of flood risk, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). By the 2070s, climate change, subsidence, population growth and urbanization, and urban development could triple the world population threatened by coastal flooding to around 150 million people. The assets exposed could grow more than ten times current levels, reaching around nine per cent of global GDP. The report concludes that "the large exposure in terms of population and assets is likely to translate into regular city-scale disasters across the global scale."

Future water crises in Asia will be sparked by "continuing neglect of proper wastewater management practices" and not "actual physical scarcity of water, as many predict at present," according to Asit Biswas of the Third World Centre for Water Management. Biswas is a co-author of Asian Water Development Outlook, commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). "Virtually no country has carefully analyzed the water, land and social implications of increasing biofuel production and then made appropriate policy decisions," the ADB report warns. Though urbanization, industrialization, population growth and climate change are likely to stress the region's water resources, the report's authors conclude that Asia has the expertise and technology to ensure adequate water supplies. Major changes in water governance practices are, however, required.

The German cabinet has approved an ambitious package of measures to address the climate problem. "Germany wants to show that a developed country can reconcile economic growth with protection of the environment," commented environment minister Sigmar Gabriel. Renewable energy will account for 25 to 30 per cent of energy needs, more than double the current level, by the year 2020. Annual subsidies of up to 500 million euros will be offered to encourage the installation of environmentally-friendly heating. The aim of these and other measures is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent below the 1990 baseline by the end of the next decade.

While welcoming many aspects of the package, environmental groups did question whether it went far enough. "Much in this energy and climate programme sounds good," said Hubert Weiger of BUND/Friends of the Earth Germany. "But it avoids many burning issues... what is really necessary is to stop building coal-powered plants, to bring in a speed limit for the motorways and abolish tax breaks for large company cars," he continued. Greenpeace criticized government support for the construction of 24 coal-fired power plants that will replace phased-out nuclear reactors.