Tiempo Climate Newswatch

2009 is the year of climate change, according to Yvo de Boer, head of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Speaking at the Palace of Westminster in London, de Boer said that "it has become abundantly clear that climate change needs urgent action." "They say that to achieve great things," he continued, "you need two things: a plan and not quite enough time. One might argue that this bodes well for the climate change negotiations. The Bali Road Map is a good plan and the clock is certainly ticking down to Copenhagen."

de Boer identified four political essentials that must be in place if the Copenhagen negotiations in December 2009 are to result in a strong agreed outcome. First, there is a need for clarity on quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives of the industrialized countries. Second, there is a need for clarity on nationally-appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries. Third, clarity is needed with regard to how financial and technological support both for mitigation and, crucially, for adaptation will be generated. Finally, there is a need for clarity on the institutional framework that will deliver support for mitigation and adaptation.

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, speaking in Madrid, has called on rich nations to do more to ensure that the current economic crisis does not add to the already intolerable one billion people going hungry in the world. "Continuing hunger is a deep stain on our world. The time has come to remove it forever. We have the wealth and know-how to do so," he said. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, investment of US$30 billion a year in infrastructure and agricultural production could eliminate the root causes of hunger by the year 2025.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that 175 million children could soon be affected by climate-related disasters. UNICEF's humanitarian funding appeal for emergencies had risen by 17 per cent over the past year, largely as a result of droughts and conflicts in eastern and southern Africa. About half of its 2009 fund would be devoted to five emergencies in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Describing many of the places UNICEF was targeting as "silent or forgotten emergencies," executive director Ann Veneman observed that "women and children are dying every day due to disease, poverty and hunger, but sadly their deaths go largely unnoticed."

The European Union (EU) has proposed that all but the poorest developing countries should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15 to 30 per cent below "business-as-usual" levels by the year 2020. Richer nations would have to help finance the efforts of the developing nations. "Without a credible financing package it is clear there will be no deal in Copenhagen," said EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas. The EU blueprint for the international climate negotiations calls for developed countries to cut their emissions to 30 per cent below 1990 levels.

The blueprint was immediately criticized for its lack of a concrete commitment to support developing nations. "The commission has come up with a decent blueprint but has shown it is unable to put its euros where its mouth is and support credible amounts of aid to prevent a global climate catastrophe," said Greenpeace EU climate and energy policy director Joris den Blanken. Bilateral discussions with the Obama administration in the United States are underway and there will also be meetings with, amongst others, China, India, Japan and Mexico.