Tiempo Climate Newswatch

As the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened in Nagoya, Japan, executive secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf stressed the importance of monitoring and evaluation processes if the Aichi Nagoya Strategic Biodiversity Plan, to be approved at the meeting, is to be successful. "Not one country reporting to the CBD... has met the 2010 target of substantially reversing the rate of loss of biodiversity," reported Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. "Among the important agenda items here in Nagoya is resetting this ticking clock by setting bolder and more determined goals," he continued.

The equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources, a principal aim of the CBD, will be a major issue in Nagoya. The Informal Consultative Group on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) is working towards a protocol. Whether or not significant progress is made could be a critical factor in determining the overall success of the summit. A ministerial meeting this coming week will make preparations for the Cancún climate summit on issues related to sustainable forest management, climate change and biodiversity.

Scientists spend too much time collecting data and attending conferences, and not enough time providing practical solutions that local people can implement, charged Anthony Nyong of the African Development Bank. They are failing Africa in its efforts to adapt to climate change, he told a Climate Change Adaptation Programme meeting, organized by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Stockholm Environment Institute and held in Addis Ababa before the recent Seventh African Development Forum. "Eighty-five per cent of the money coming to Africa for adaptation is used for 'capacity building' [meetings] in hotels - yet nobody has ever built capacity in a hotel," he said.

The theme of the African Development Forum was acting on climate change for sustainable development in Africa. "Finances are critical," commented Abdoulie Janneh, head of the Economic Commission for Africa, in an interview with UN Radio. "We must mobilize our own resources to really again underpin the importance we attach to climate change. But this is the challenge that was imposed on Africa. We are not contributing much to this phenomenon of climate change and, therefore, what we are saying is that those countries that have created this should really come up with the resources necessary," he continued.

The United Kingdom and China head a recent survey of clean energy efforts in six countries that together account for half the world's carbon emissions. "The Chinese leadership have made a strategic decision that they missed out on the last two industrial revolutions and they don't want to miss out on the third one," commented Erwin Jackson of Australia's Climate Institute, who commissioned the report.

The survey estimates the United Kingdom's incentives to cut pollution from electricity generation as equivalent to a price tag on emissions of just over US$29 per tonne of carbon. China's efforts amount to US$14.20 per tonne of carbon, with the remaining countries in the survey falling well below (the United States at US$5.10; Japan, US$3.10; Australia, US$1.70; South Korea, just over 70 US cents). The survey was conducted by Vivid Economics.