Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Delegates from 182 countries met this week at the Bonn Climate Change Talks to discuss, amongst other things, the draft negotiating texts that will form the basis of any agreement reached in Copenhagen later this year. "The political moment is right to reach an agreement," said Yvo de Boer, who heads the climate treaty secretariat. "There is no doubt in my mind that the Copenhagen climate conference in December is going to lead to a result. If the world has learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that global issues require a global response," he continued. According to Connie Hedegaard, Danish climate and energy minister, agreement on a treaty rests on the richer countries paying for emission control measures in the developing world. "If we do not provide financing then we will not have a deal in Copenhagen," she said. Hedegaard, like others, is concerned about the slow progress of the negotiations.

In Bonn, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) will consider issues related to the goal of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, enhanced action on adaptation, mitigation and finance, technology and capacity-building. Michael Zammit Cutajar, AWG-LCA chair, noted that the AWG-LCA negotiating text did not prejudge or preclude any particular outcome. "The text is a starting point and now is the time for parties to take position and enrich it," he said. The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) will focus on a proposal for amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, including emissions reduction commitments of 37 industrialized countries for the protocol post-2012. "It is important that we complete some of the more solvable issues here in Bonn so that we can then focus on the more difficult ones later on in the negotiations," said AWG-KP chair John Ashe. Other matters to be discussed include how to improve emissions trading, emissions credits, the Kyoto Protocol's project-based mechanisms and options for land-use, land-use change and forestry.

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution recognizing climate change as a threat to security. "We are of the firm view that the adverse impacts of climate change have very real implications for international peace and security," said Nauru ambassador Marlene Moses on behalf of the Pacific Small Island Developing States which introduced the non-binding resolution. The resolution may place the climate issue on the agenda of the influential United Nations Security Council.

Over thirty African ministers have agreed to mainstream climate change adaptation measures into national and regional development plans. The Nairobi Declaration was adopted at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). It calls on the international community to provide support for the implementation of climate change programmes while at the same time ensuring sustainable development, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable such as women and children. "It is clear to me that as a continent Africa has needs that managing climate change and the environment have to speak to. I am heartened by the progress made by the negotiators and the political will shown by the presence of the ministers," said Buyelwa Sonjica, AMCEN president and minister of water and environmental affairs in South Africa. "Africa’s environment ministers have today signalled their resolve to be part of the solution to the climate change challenge by forging a unified position within their diversity of economies," commented Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Increasing livestock production may be an attractive option for poor African farmers unable to sustain crop cultivation as climate changes, according to research from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) based in Nairobi and Waen Associates in the United Kingdom. "Livestock... can survive in conditions that are far more severe than what crops can tolerate," said ILRI's Philip Thornton. "Livestock can provide poor households with a buffer against the risk of climate change and allow them to take advantage of the increasing demand for animal products in Africa," he continued.

The researchers estimate that as many as one million square kilometers of marginal farmlands in sub-Saharan Africa could become unfarmable by the year 2050, with staples such as maize, millet and sorghum no longer viable. "The next step is to maybe take a few case study locations and then really look at the household impact, so that we can say something about what kinds of changes these households might be facing and what they may do about it," Thornton said.