UN chief to attend Bali conference on climate change

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is planning to attend a conference on climate change on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in December this year, the executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer, said here on Thursday.

But de Boer said he had yet to obtain formal information on which countries would send officials at head of state/government level to the meeting which would bring together around 10,000 people from 189 countries.

"It is too early to say which countries will send officials at head of state/government level," de Boer told ANTARA here.

He said the Bali conference on climate change was scheduled to be conducted from December 3-14 but the presence of the UN chief has yet to be confirmed because it would depend on developments around various international issues.

Speaking at a press conference at the UN Headquarters on Thursday, de Boer said there was a strong desire from various countries and international private sectors to stem the tide of greenhouse gas emission.

He made the statement following several reports on climate change and the results of a meeting among Climate Change Convention countries in Bonn, Germany, last week.

The Bonn meeting, attended by 191 countries subscrbing to the Climate Change Convention and 173 Kyoto Protocol countries, was aimed at reducing green house gas emission until 2012 and held in a preparation of the main conference in Bali.

de Boer said it was the first time for the participants of the Bonn meeting to respond to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)`s report on an inexpensive technology to deal with climate change.

Asked what activity in Indonesia was contributing the most to climate change , de Boer said, "Illegal logging." (*)

Press briefing by Yvo de Boer at Carbon Forum Asia: Start of negotiations for post-2012 agreement crucial for health of the planet

Singapore
6 November 2007
The UNFCCC Executive Secretary told stakeholders at the Carbon Forum Asia tradefair and conference that the negotiations need to begin this December to avoid a gap between the end of the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period and whatever agreement comes next. “We’ve seen several positive signals, such as the statements made by heads of state at the Secretary-General’s high level event in September in New York, and broad agreement by ministers who met in Indonesia just a few weeks ago. Nonetheless, we must stay focussed, and achieve a formal launch of negotiations in Bali in December, one that sets out a timetable and a means for moving forward,” Mr. de Boer said.
source: unfccc

Al Gore Finds New Cause Of Global Warming

Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore, today announced he has single-handedly found a new major cause of global warming. Haircuts.

Liberal, wacko scientists, as usual, totally agree with Al Gore's finding. They claim that, after a haircut, when the thrown-away hair cuttings decay, they give off massive amounts of green house gases, in hues of blond, brunette and redhead. This contributes to the severe global warming crisis in America, which, according to liberals, is the worst offending nation in everything.

Along with SUV's and outdoor barbecuing, haircutting in America is a serious environmentally unfriendly act, especially when perpetrated by rich men, rich women, actors and politicians, as they get more frequent haircuts than the average poor person.

The world's hair care industry is aghast at Gore's findings. Hollywood haircutter-to-the-stars, Jose Jair, stated, "OMG, all these years when I was charging $500 for a haircut I was contributing to global warming. I'm so sorry. Now that I know, I'll have to raise my price."

And, lastly, as a result of his new findings, Al Gore has personally vowed to get all his hair cut off and, in the interests of science and the environment, go bald.

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International Demonstrations on Climate Change 8 December 2007

Coinciding with the UN Climate Talks (MOP 3, COP 13) in Bali, Indonesia, from the 3rd to the 14th December 2007

The 'Call to Action' for these demonstrations and related events that will take place on December 8th 2007 is as follows :

"We demand that world leaders take the urgent and resolute action that is needed to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate, so that the entire world can move as rapidly as possible to a stronger emissions reductions treaty which is both equitable and effective in preventing dangerous climate change.

We also demand that the long-industrialised countries that have emitted most greenhouse gases up to now take most of the responsibility for the adaptive measures that have to be taken, especially by low-emitting countries with limited economic resources."

International Day of Action, December 8

In Indonesia, on December 8, WALHI (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia = Friends of the Earth Indonesia) will take the lead organising at local level for the International Day of Action in Bali. WALHI will be supported by the Bali Working Group. A huge mobilization is expected. The mobilisation will be linked with the actions around the world through the global climate change action (www.globalclimatecampaign.org).

The target of the mobilisation will be the media and general public. Through the mobilisation, the NGOs and movements gathered in Bali will send a strong message to world leaders that the world can not wait for real action to fight the causes of the climate change.

WALHI will look for the most strategic place to start the action. The media coordination will be very crucial to inform the media that will be concentrated in the official venue. The intention is to organise interesting carnivals, with music and colorful banners from different groups. The announcement will need to be prepared and launched at least one month prior the action day. WALHI will organise Indonesian groups, particularly Balinese groups. It is also intended to organise an interesting action during the mobilisation inspired by local culture, i.e. giant floating life safety.

There are also plans for several other activities, such as live concert, artistic action, etc.

Indonesia a climate change perpetrator

Should climate change be made the priority in Indonesia's environmental policy? I believe the answer is "yes". Indonesia should be more actively involved in global efforts to combat climate change by making this a priority among other environmental issues.

First of all, climate change will affect our lives. The 2001 IPCC report estimates, with a high degree of confidence, several impacts of climate change in tropical Asia. The report predicts climate change will increase tropical Asian countries' vulnerability to extreme climate events, including droughts and floods. Increased precipitation intensity, particularly during the summer monsoon season, could expose people in flood-prone areas to a higher risk of floods.

The IPCC report also predicts climate change will increase occurrences and the intensity of tropical cyclones, with serious consequences. Stronger tropical cyclones combined with rising sea-levels may lead to increased risk of loss of life and property in low-lying coastal areas.

Moreover, strong winds resulting from cyclones, combined with thermal and water stresses, sea level rise and increased flooding, will threaten crop production and aquaculture.

According to the report, large deltas and low-lying coastal areas in Asia could be inundated by rising sea-levels. On this particular issue, we could also refer to a study of Nicholls and Mimura, which estimates Indonesia will lose 1.9 percent of its land area with just a 0.6 meter rise in sea-levels (R.J. Nicholls and N. Mimura, 1998).

Other impacts predicted by the report include a higher incidence of heat-related and infectious diseases due to warmer and wetter conditions, increased vulnerability of freshwater supplies and threats to biodiversity resulting from land-use change and population pressures in Asia.

Given such enormous potential impacts, I see no choice but to make climate change a priority among environmental issues.

We should consider several adaptation options to minimize the magnitude of these impacts, ranging from the adjustment of harvest times and the development of new hybrids, to the protection of wetlands.

Climate change can also be mitigated with the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. The question is, who should bear the responsibility for the reductions?

This responsibility should be differentiated according to each country's past emissions. In the climate change issue, bygones are not bygones -- polluters should pay for the damage they have caused. This can be seen in the differentiated responsibilities under UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, where the obligation to reduce emissions falls exclusively on developed countries.

Indonesia is excluded from obligation. This is certainly understandable given the current GHGs concentrations originate largely from developed countries.

For this reason, it should be noted, the responsibility to reduce emissions can no longer be considered a form of assistance given by developed countries to developing countries. Instead such a responsibility is compensation to be paid by developed countries for their past and current excessive emissions levels.

Unfortunately, the report of Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics provides a different picture about our emissions. It says when emissions from forest and peatland destruction are accounted for, Indonesia comes hard on the heels of the U.S. and China as the main contributor to climate change. This alarming report may have serious consequences to our position in climate change negotiations.

On one hand, if the report is correct, we can no longer consider ourselves as victims of climate change. We are now a perpetrator, and one of the worst.

On the other hand such a change in status from victim to culprit may impede us in taking initiatives to induce developed countries to reduce their emissions. We cannot push developed countries unless we can significantly reduce our own emissions, and such a reduction will only occur if we make climate change the priority in our environmental policy.

Lastly, I believe we can make significant emissions reductions inexpensively. As mentioned above, Indonesia's total emissions have drastically increased due to forest and peatland destruction. Excluding emissions from forest and peatland destruction, the country's total emissions are ranked 21st, far below those of developed countries.

Indonesia's per capita emissions are lower than those of neighboring developing countries, let alone developed countries, thanks to our huge population. This means our emissions will be significantly reduced if we restore our degraded forests and peatlands, while simultaneously preventing further destruction.

The good news is, good forest and peatland management does not necessarily involve large costs. Forest and peatland degradation in Indonesia has mainly resulted from activities that are actually illegal. Those activities include illegal logging and forest fires due to land clearing using the slash-and-burn method.

Hence, it is plausible to argue that our emissions reductions first and foremost require a strong government willing to enforce our own environmental law. Let's not forget while developed countries' emissions could be seen as a symbol of economic growth and prosperity, ours are the symbol of lawlessness and ignorance, if not foolishness.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Developing nations to act on climate change: UN

The politics of climate change has dominated the election campaign this week, with the debate focusing on whether developing countries should have to make commitments before Australia signs up to a new climate change agreement.

But a United Nations (UN) spokesman has told ABC Radio's AM program he is confident that developing nations will agree to get on board at the climate change meeting in Bali at the end of the year.

John Hay, the spokesman for the UN Convention on Climate Change Secretariat based in Bonn in Germany, says developing nations are ready to begin serious negotiations in Bali.

"What we expect they will be bringing is a commitment, basically," he said.

"A commitment to be engaged and a commitment to be part of a post-2012 climate change regime. And we're already seeing very good indications that this will happen."

Mr Hay says the Bali meeting will not establish a treaty with new binding targets, but will merely launch negotiations for a deal to be finalised by 2009.

He says it is likely poorer nations will commit to different types of action, such as lower targets.

"What we can expect is that countries not only look at the options of absolute targets, but also bringing, for example, parts of their economies under targets, that countries agree to finding the best solution which just fits their particular needs," he said.

"But what is quite clear is that industrialised countries must take the lead."

China, India not the villains

Greenpeace International spokesman Bill Hare has been to the UN climate change conferences every year since 1992 and says it is countries such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Singapore, and not China and India, that need to adopt targets.

"South Korea at one end is classified as a developing country, but it surely must take on similar targets as countries like Australia or New Zealand ultimately," he said.

"On the other hand, India is still very poor and in no way could be expected to take on binding national emission limits at this point."

The Government accused Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd of a policy backflip this week, after he said a commitment by developing countries in the second phase of Kyoto was a pre-condition for Australia signing up.

But Mr Hare says the Coalition's stance has also changed.

"For the first time it said in New York in September that developing countries may not have to take the same kind of binding emission obligations as industrialised countries," he said.

"Of course no-one actually believes that will mean anything internationally because the Howard Government has got such a bad reputation internationally."

Meanwhile, Mr Hay warns there is a closing window of opportunity to get a new climate change deal.

"If negotiations are not launched this year in Bali, there is a very big danger of the climate change process, I would almost say, dissolving," he said.
source: ABC news