Climate-driven changes in the water cycle will affect large regions of the world. Credit: Friedrich Böhringer/creative commons license

By Stephen Leahy

CANCÚN, Dec 8, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – As the world heats up, continents are drying up, with severe droughts forecast in the future. But negotiators at the climate summit here seem to have forgotten about water in their endless discussions over forests, carbon trading and finances.

“The main impact of climate change is on the planet’s water cycle,” said Henk van Schaik of the Cooperative Programme on Water and Climate, a foundation based in the Netherlands.

“Climate-driven changes in the water cycle will affect large regions of the world,” van Schaik told TerraViva at a side event meeting here at COP 16 in Cancún .

The impact of climate on the world’s water resources is not addressed within the U.N. climate framework, said Anders Berntell of the Stockholm International Water Institute.

“Negotiators here see it as just another sector of the economy but it is a basic element for life. Water is the bloodstream of our planet,” Berntell said.

The global water cycle has already been affected with more intense rainfalls and decline in the evapotranspiration rate over land, according to new scientific research. Evapotranspiration is the term that describes the process of water evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth’s land surface to its atmosphere.

As the temperature goes up, rates of evaporation are expected to increase. They did until 1998, when there was a leveling off and then a decline in recent years, even though the planet continued to warm, said Beverly Law, a global climate change researcher at Oregon State University.

“Evapotranspiration depends strongly on the amount of water available… the decline seems to be because less water is available,” Law, who led the first global study, told TerraViva.

There is less water because the soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including major portions of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, Law and her colleagues reported in a study in the journal Nature last October.

Not only are soils drying up, since less of the sun’s energy is being used in the evapotranspiration process, more is available to warm the air in these regions, says Law.

Within the next 30 years, large parts of parts of Asia, the United States, and southern Europe, and much of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East could experience serious droughts based on another study also published last October.

“We are facing the possibility of widespread drought in the coming decades, but this has yet to be fully recognised by both the public and the climate change research community,” said Aiguo Dai a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the U.S. state of Colorado.

“If the projections in this study come even close to being realised, the consequences for society worldwide will be enormous,” he said in a release. Dai’s projections are based on computer climate modelling of the future as the climate continues to heat up.

Although based on models, those projections are fairly “robust”, says Kevin Trenberth, a senior climate scientist who is also at NCAR. Climate experts have long maintained that one of the major effects of climate change is “that places already wet get wetter and places already dry get drier”, Trenberth said in an email.

Water is not only an essential element for life, it is essential for nearly every sector of the global economy, including energy, manufacturing, transport, agriculture and more, noted Laura Tuck, director of the Sustainable Development Department at the World Bank.

“By 2030 in order to feed the world, water use for agriculture will need to increase 45 percent,” Tuck told attendees at the side event meeting.

Energy demands will be 160 percent higher and some of that will have to come from hydroelectric power. Many proposed climate mitigation plans, like reducing forest degradation and deforestation (REDD), or sequestering carbon in soil cannot be accomplished without water, she noted.

“In addition, institutions need to change because they were built in a world when there was no climate change,” Tuck said.

There has been some progress, with consideration being given to including water on the agenda of the next Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) meeting in June of 2011, reported Berntell of the Stockholm International Water Institute.

“We have to do more to explain the value of water,” he said.

Share this

Jatropha berries. Credit: John Bwakali/IPS

Par Mantoe Phakathi

MBABANE, 7 déc (IPS/TerraViva) – “Nous allons à Cancún pas mieux lotis que nous l’étions à Copenhague”, a déclaré Thuli Makama, la directrice des Amis de la terre – Swaziland, pendant qu’elle se préparait à se rendre aux négociations sur le climat au Mexique.

Makama s’inquiète d’une proposition particulière pour la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre: les biocarburants. Elle estime que les pays industrialisés sont en train de promouvoir la production et l’utilisation des biocarburants afin de répondre à leurs besoins énergétiques, mais cela laissera davantage de personnes dans le monde en développement sans nourriture.

“Nous sommes en face du danger de produire des aliments pour les machines plutôt que pour nos estomacs”, a confié Makama à IPS. Le Swaziland connaît de graves pénuries alimentaires, avec 170.000 personnes sur sa population valide d’environ un million d’habitants dans le besoin d’aide alimentaire cette année.

Makama et les Amis de la terre ont durement fait campagne contre un projet visant à mettre en place la production de biocarburants à partir du jatropha au Swaziland.

Une société britannique appelée ‘D1 Oils’ a signé des contrats avec les agriculteurs afin qu’ils lui cultivent le jatropha. Un premier accord avec le gouvernement envisageait d’affecter 20.000 hectares à la production de biocarburants, ce qui pourrait devenir 50.000. Le site Internet de l’entreprise indique qu’il y a des millions d’hectares de terres marginales dans les pays en développement qui ne peuvent pas être utilisées efficacement pour produire des vivres.

“Une grande partie de ces terres est adaptée à la production des cultures énergétiques telles que le jatropha”, déclare l’entreprise, qui a envisagé d’installer ces activités dans les zones du Swaziland touchées par la sécheresse.

‘Les Amis de la terre’ a parlé à beaucoup d’agriculteurs impliqués dans le projet. L’un d’entre eux, Sam Dube, a déclaré au groupe de campagne sur l’environnement qu’il avait consacré ses trois champs, sur lesquels il produisait auparavant des cultures vivrières sur deux de ses parcelles, et du coton comme culture de rente sur le troisième, à cette culture énergétique.

Il a dû attendre trois ans, le temps que son jatropha arrive à maturité, avant de pouvoir commencer à en tirer des bénéfices.

Il pourrait être en difficulté. D1 Oils a sorti le projet avant qu’il ne démarre correctement parce que, selon le président directeur général de l’entreprise au Swaziland, Gaetan Ning, le gouvernement du Swaziland n’était pas disposé à soutenir le projet avec la législation requise.

“Ils voulaient que nous définissions une stratégie nationale sur les biocarburants, pourtant ce n’était pas à nous de faire cela mais au gouvernement”, a indiqué Ning. Après avoir dépensé plus de huit millions de dollars sur cinq ans dans la culture de cette plante sur des fermes privées, l’entreprise en a mis un terme.

“Nous avions embauché 500 personnes pour travailler sur ces fermes et nous étions obligés de les licencier”, a expliqué Ning.

Gcina Dladla, porte-parole de l’Autorité de protection de l’environnement du Swaziland, a déclaré que c’était dommage que D1 Oils ait abandonné le projet après qu’on lui a demandé de faire l’Evaluation environnementale stratégique.

“Nous voulions vérifier par des faits, l’impact du jatropha sur la sécurité alimentaire et la qualité des sols en réponse au tollé des organisations de la société civile”, a affirmé Dladla.

Prudent, le consultant en environnement, Rex Brown, qui travaillait avec D1 Oils sur le projet de jatropha, estime que l’insécurité alimentaire ne peut être imputée aux biocarburants. Les raisons pour lesquelles les gens au Swaziland et ailleurs souffrent de la faim peuvent inclure des politiques alimentaires inadéquates, la disponibilité des aliments, les forces du marché, la distribution et la logistique ainsi que les climats appropriés.

“Ce qui est souvent critique, c’est la capacité d’une personne à s’acheter ses vivres”, a déclaré Brown. Cultiver du jatropha sur des terres marginales dans les zones arides du Swaziland, estime-t-il, pourrait offrir un revenu stable aux populations rurales, soit en termes de main-d’œuvre agricole ou de producteurs indépendants.

Brown affirme que le projet de biocarburants à base de jatropha que D1 Oils a proposé présente l’avantage supplémentaire de capter et de stocker le carbone atmosphérique.

“Le rôle de l’agriculture, et de l’arboriculture en particulier, dans l’atténuation des changements climatiques tourne autour de la capacité de la plante à stocker le carbone pendant longtemps”, a expliqué Brown.

Défendant les biocarburants contre des accusations selon lesquelles la culture à grande échelle déplacera les agriculteurs et les cultures vivrières, Brown a déclaré que c’était partir d’un seul cas pour critiquer tous les autres cas.

“Le caoutchouc, le coton, le cacao, le sisal, par exemple, sont cultivés sur de grandes plantations au niveau mondial”, a dit Brown. “Utilisant l’argument avancé par les opposants aux biocarburants, nous devrions également mettre en cause la sécurité alimentaire de ces cultures”.

Sans doute Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss, de GRAIN, une organisation non gouvernementale internationale qui soutient la biodiversité, les systèmes alimentaires communautaires, remettrait en cause le rôle joué par l’agriculture de plantation de toute sorte d’arbre.

Pschorn-Strauss dit que les biocarburants – que GRAIN préfère appeler les agrocarburants – ont déjà déplacé des fermiers de leurs terres, négativement affecté la production vivrière et causé la destruction des forêts.

“Alors, de nombreuses promesses d’agrocarburants comme le jatropha n’ont pas été concrétisées”, a-t-elle déclaré.

Elle ne veut pas voir les biocarburants mieux acceptés dans le cadre d’une stratégie d’atténuation négociée à Cancún.

“[L'industrie] a réussi à développer des mécanismes et des accords qui lui permettront d’exploiter légitimement l’environnement et les gens pour un gain financier”, a déclaré Pschorn-Strauss.

La réponse peut se situer quelque part entre les positions antagonistes. Le chercheur David Tilman, de l’Université du Minnesota, aux Etats-Unis, était l’auteur principal d’un document qui présentait les bases potentielles d’une production durable et responsable de biocarburants.

Pour obtenir le maximum de réductions des émissions de carbone par rapport aux combustibles fossiles tout en conservant le couvert forestier et la biodiversité, la production de biocarburants devrait provenir de déchets municipaux et industriels, des résidus de cultures et de bois récoltés de façon durable ainsi que de plantes vivaces cultivées sur des terres dégradées – déjà abandonnées sur le plan agricole.

(FIN/2010)

Irrigation near Kakamas, South Africa: sustainable use of water is especially critical in a warming world. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS

By Stephen Leahy

MEXICO CITY, Dec 7, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) Africa will be amongst the hardest hit regions of the world as the climate heats up, threatening the continent’s food security, experts agree. If global temperatures rise 2.0 degrees C, southern Africa will warm an additional 1.5 degrees to a 3.5-degree increase on average.

Such temperatures could be reached as early as 2035. The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Britain recently advised that a 4.0-degree C rise in the global average temperature could be reached as soon as 2060 if the ever-increasing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are not curbed.

“The prognosis for agriculture and food security in SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa) in a 4°C+ world is bleak,” write the authors of a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society to be published next month.

“A four-degree C world would be horrendous and must be avoided at all costs,” said Philip Thornton of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya and co-author of a paper in the Royal Society special issue “Four degrees and beyond”.

“This special issue is a call to action so we can avoid such a future,” Thornton told TerraViva.

Even if a new climate treaty came out of the final week of the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancún, 2.0 degrees C looks inevitable, he said. No one is realistically expecting a comprehensive climate treaty for several years. This means southern Africa can expect to be 3.5 degrees C hotter and much drier in future, he said.

“It is going to get very difficult for rain-fed agriculture in this region,” Thornton warned.

Even 2.0 degrees C would be devastating for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and other neighbouring countries, said Lance Greyling a member of South Africa’s parliament.

“We can’t have more than 1.5 degrees C globally and that has been Africa’s position since Copenhagen COP,” Greyling said in an interview in Mexico City at the Globe International forum on climate change.

Water is a huge constraint on South Africa’s agriculture and economy since 98 percent of freshwater resources are already allocated, he said.

A great deal of work will be needed to help farmers adapt to these new conditions, including the development of heat and drought-tolerant varieties, said Thornton. Learning from other regions with conditions similar to those expected in southern Africa in the next 20 to 30 years, as well as bringing seeds from those regions, has to be part of the adaptation strategy.

It also means that water-hungry crops like maize will need to be replaced by cassava, millet and sorghum. That involves social change since local people largely prefer maize and food preparation of those other crops is different and may be more difficult, he said. “It’s a towering challenge,” Thornton noted.

Climate projections for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa are less clear in a 2.0 degrees-plus world. Changes in seasons and rainfall patterns have already been occurring for the last 20 or 30 years. That’s expected to continue. Higher temperatures mean crops need more water, and projections for precipitation, especially in dry regions, are that rainfall will be similar or less abundant.

More importantly, rain will likely occur in fewer events with longer dry periods between, making agriculture very difficult as the planet heats up.

The paper concludes that the cost of reaching the Millennium Development Goal on food security – halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015 – in a +2°C world will be around $40–$60 billion per year. “Without this investment, serious damage from climate change will not be avoided,” it said.

By 2050, countries in the Sahel, the region south the Sahara desert, will experience crop-growing conditions for which there are no current analogues globally, said Sonja Vermeulen, deputy director for research at the Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security launched last week in Cancún.

This is a 10-year, $200 million research initiative cope with climate change impacts on agriculture. It hopes to reduce poverty by 10 percent in targeted regions and lower the number of rural people who are malnourished by 25 percent by 2020.

Those unprecedented climate conditions make it difficult if not impossible to grow food. There may be no possibility of adaptation without significant outside resources, Vermeulen said in a statement.

The mounting hazards of climate change are beyond the “current coping range” of either local communities or national institutions, agreed Janice Jiggins of the Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands. Africa’s losses could in theory be offset by gains in productivity in more northern regions like Canada and Russia – however, counting on that is a very risky strategy, she said.

“We cannot rely on redistribution of resources via trade as an ‘adaptive mechanism’,” Jiggins told TerraViva.

Previous studies have shown that under 2.0 degrees of warming, global grain prices will likely double by 2050, if not before. An additional 25 million more children could be malnourished, said Gerald Nelson, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.

Those studies only looked at changes in temperatures and precipitation and “the month to month variations were dramatic”, Nelson told TerraViva. The impacts on livestock have yet to be incorporated. If temperatures continue to rise by 3.0 and 4.0 degrees, it will be very hard to do anything to adapt in many parts of the world, he said.

Even with a +2 degrees C hotter world, the real scale of the problem of food security in Africa has been heavily underestimated and will require massive investments, Thornton concluded.

“It is completely unfair that Africa is not really responsible for the problem, and yet the greatest burden falls on their agriculture sector,” he said. “The last thing Africa needed was climate change.”

Share this

Mokoro canoes on the Okavango Delta. Credit: Wikicommons

By Mantoe Phakathi

CANCÚN, Dec 7, 2010, (IPS/TerraViva) – One more thing to add to the checklist of requirement for a sound global agreement on climate change: water.

“In Africa we have seen that climate change is manifested in water,” said Bai-Mass Taal, executive secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), addressing a side event at the United Nations Climate Conference in Cancún. “We either have too much water in floods, or the scarcity of the natural resource in droughts.”

However, said Taal, water is not explicitly mentioned in the text of a treaty to respond to global climate change being debated by representatives of nearly 200 countries.

He said water security needs to be integrated at all levels, if the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is serious about coming up with comprehensive solutions to the problems posed by global warming.

“The United Nations has declared water as a human right – what does that mean in the African context where the resource is getting more scarce every day with climate change worsening the situation?” said Taal.

Africa is not alone in facing growing challenges around water. At the same event, Dr Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, vice-president of the Asian Development Bank, highlighted growing demand for decreasing water resources in Asia, where a shortfall of sustainable supply of as much as 40 percent is predicted by 2030.

“Shortages of accessible freshwater are being experienced for domestic water supply and sanitation which spill over to other sectors, constraining energy generation, reducing agricultural production and food supply while threatening public health and regional security,” said Schaefer-Preuss.

Asia is already experiencing more frequent, more intense floods and droughts. Rising sea levels threaten 450 million people who lie in low-lying coastal zones.

“Sea level rise can directly damage coastal infrastructure,” she said. “It can also reduce water security through salt water contamination of coastal aquifers, affecting both agriculture and urban water supply.”

In Asia and Africa, water scarcity places an additional burden on women who travel every-longer distances to find water for households; the additional time and labour can lead to girls missing out on education.

Making the case for water

The Water and Climate Coalition (WCC) is a body pressing for water resources management to be included at the heart of the global response to climate change, which counts NGOs, U.N. agencies, community-based organisations, business and trade unions as members.

“We need an establishment of a work programme on water and climate under the UNFCCC,” said Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute, one of the WCC’s member organisations.

Some progress is being made, as six countries have called for water to be tabled as an agenda item in the technical discussions under the UNFCCC.

But there is also powerful dissent. Developed countries feel water should not form part of the negotiations but must be incorporated into adaptation measures.

“The negotiations are complicated as they are,” said Aart van der Horst, the senior policy officer of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said creating a new focus on water would only further complicate negotiations that require the approval of all parties to the convention. “Let’s stop creating so many windows; but let’s work with what we have to allow countries to come up with adaptation strategies specific to their needs.”

Van der Horst said addressing water security can readliy be funded through adaptation finance already being discussed, such as the 380 million dollar fund for Least Developed Countries. More money will be available from the much larger funding already pledged under the Copenhagen Accord, or from an adaptation fund yet to be agreed as part of the UNFCCC process itself.

“Let’s keep it simple and work with what we have towards adaptation,” he said.

Taal acknowledged there is a deadlock between developing countries and richer nations over water. “Unfortunately, we say water is a resource and it needs a special focus.”

The call is to recognise water in climate change negotiations as both a transmitter of the impacts of global warming, and a key vehicle for strengthening social, environmental and economic resilience to them.

“We believe that water and its management can offer a unifying focus for global, regional as well as national co-operation on adaptation to climate change,” said Dr Anna Grobicki, executive secretary of another WCC member, the Global Water Partnership, at a meeting last year.” Investments in integrated water resources development and management are investments in adaptation.”

(END/2010)

Gunter Pauli, author of "The Blue Economy"

Gunter Pauli *

THIMPHU, Dec 6, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – A decade ago HM Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, the Queen of Bhutan visited the ZERI pavilion at the World Expo in Hannover, the largest bamboo building in modern times, constructed with a German building permit.

The Pavilion demonstrated new emerging business models, proven to work in Colombia, Brazil, Namibia, and Sweden. As the driving force behind these innovative development models, Her Majesty thought I should come to Bhutan.

I came and was enchanted with the country, its people. I was impressed with the visionary approach of HM Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King who not only brought democracy to his Himalayan Kingdom, but who stated early in his reign that happiness is more important than growth.

That vision is now known to the world as Gross National Happiness (GNH). There is no doubt, a nation that enshrines forest protection into the constitution, and establishes every citizen’s right to traditional medicine, embraces a different type of development.

On top of that, the government banned the sale of cigarettes and the use of plastic bags. However, the pressure to grow is high, unemployment poses a new challenge, and access to satellite television and internet entices many to emulate a consumption model desiring junk food that recently has been subjected to a special tax.

After crossing the country from West to East, four extended visits enriched by dialogues with government, private sector, and civil society, I submitted a portfolio of possible initiatives “to grow and be happy”.

Based on my experience in creating initiatives that respond to people’s needs, with what they have, I designed businesses that go beyond cutting costs, and rather generate more value, especially for remote rural communities.

And one of the core values is happiness. A portfolio of 6 top projects emerged, each based on a benchmark somewhere in the world, inspired by pioneers who have demonstrated a sense for competitiveness while having the capacity to reach out to the unreached.

These opportunities offer a platform for entrepreneurship, job generation and investments, provided the government creates the policies to make this happen.

Working sessions with the Prime Minister and his colleagues lead to the formulation of government resolutions to set the stage for implementing this GNH portfolio backed up by an independent GNH Fund.

The Prime Minister’s goal that Bhutan will revert to 100% organic farming, forever. As a first step to achieve that goal, he wishes to decree that all food served in restaurants and hotels must be certified organic.

This guarantees higher income to farmers. The second policy option may even do better: turn Bhutan into the first country committed to bioplastics. An inspirational encounter between HM the Queen with Dr. Catia Bastioli, the founder of Novamont (Italy), who is already converting agro-waste of 600 Italian farmers into bioplastics, set the stage for a promising collaborative effort.

Bhutan said no to plastic bags. Now it says yes to bioplastics made from left-overs which after use, are composted and returned to soil.

The rise of petroleum imports is hurting the Bhutanese balance of payments. The Prime Minister already declared that the country will be carbon negative. Now he is prepared to commit to eliminate all use of fossil fuel.

He is inspired by the pioneering work of Las Gaviotas, Colombia. Las Gaviotas taps pine trees, and generates all the fuel it needs. Bhutan has a 72% forest cover. We can imagine an army of “happy tappers”, generating fuel from the trees.

The capital city of Thimphu, and emerging urban centers are struggling with an increasing flow of black water, a danger to public health and costly to treat. The Prime Minister is ready to turn Bhutan into the first country committed to eliminate septic tanks, sewage and water treatment.

Instead, Bhutan wishes to opt for the Swedish technology proven to work in homes, schools, apartment blocks and city quarters by the architect Anders Nyquist in Sundsvall. This “dry” approach, that does not smell at all, eliminates viruses at source, recycles water on site, regenerates nutrients and is cheap.

Each policy decision proposed is backed by technologies, competitive business models, investment opportunities, … based on the Blue Economy, a development model that does not require anyone to pay more to be sustainable.

Everyone in the government read my book with the same title, now I realize the power of publishing! These policy decision made on December 7, 2010 inspired me to create the GNH fund with local partners. Over 100 personalities signing a letter of support go beyond the clapping hands and tapping shoulders.

We are delighted to advance on an investment rather an aid strategy and expect the fund will be operational by Spring 2011. Imagine if the big neighboring countries would opt for the same strategy.

* Gunter Pauli author of “The Blue Economy” and entrepreneur. (COPYRIGHT IPS)

Share this

Protestors insisted on protection of the interests of indigenous people and peasant farmers. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi

CANCÚN, Dec 6, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – As ministers arrived for the second week of climate change negotiations in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, an estimated two thousand marchers took to the streets to oppose what they called a capitalist outcome of deliberations.

“We’re seeing a green capitalism here in Cancún, where rich countries are calling for solutions aimed at violating the rights of not only the environment but also of grassroots groups,” said Mary Lon Malig, from peasant farmers’ organisation La Via Campesina.

The marchers – led by Via Campesina, the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, environmental group Friends of the Earth, and others – rejected the emerging outlines of agreement on such things as expanding the Clean Development Mechanism, the finalising of a REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) programme, and the prominence given to bio-fuels.

Protestors demanded solutions to global warming that will not deprive indigenous people and smallholder farmers of their rights of access to natural resources such as water and land.

“We’re saying No! to the privatisation of water because this is a natural resource that should be available even to the poorest of the poor,” she said.

Malig told protestors at the march’s end point in the Plaza de la Reforma that countries pushing for fuels derived from biomass – ranging from maize and palm kernels, to sugar cane and jatropha – as part of the solution to climate change were supporting a strategy that would deprive indigenous people of land.

“We’re faced with a situation where land is going to be grabbed from peasant farmers by our governments to give way to huge hectares [for] plantations of bio-fuels owned by transnational corporations,” said Malig.

REDD programmes also came under strong criticism from marchers. Critics said the sale of carbon credits to polluting countries to raise funds to protect and restore forests in developing countries would only allow the developed world to continue polluting.

“This means the communities who live next to fossil refineries in the U.S. will continue getting diseases such as cancer from the fossil fuels,” said GGJI’s Sunyoung Young.

Young said the communities whose health is affected by these refineries in the United States are overwhelmingly poor people, blacks, Asians and migrants.

Elsewhere, REDD programmes have been criticised for blocking access of forest-dependent peoples to resources in the name of conservation, while any financial benefits from the sale of carbon credits go to governments rather than local communities.

The Clean Development Mechanism, which assigns carbon credits to development projects deemed less polluting than alternatives, also attracted criticism from marchers. They said the CDM leads to the adoption of false solutions to climate change, such as nuclear energy.

Drawing inspiration from previous struggles by civil society to against global negotiations led by governments and business, the march celebrated the example of Korean farmer Lee Kyung-hae, who plunged a knife into his own heart in protest against World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations in 2003.

He was hailed as a selfless hero who gave up his life to oppose the WTO, which civil society has widely criticised as favouring large corporate interests.

As the march began at the Via Campesina camp at the Unidad Deportiva Jacinto Canek in central Cancún, incense was burned in Lee’s memory. Others put down flowers, oranges and a variety of maize seeds – Mexico is the birthplace of corn – at the Via Campesina camp in downtown Cancún.

“We’re trying to connect with the spirit of Lee,” said one of the protesters after placing flowers.

Doudou Pierre Fetile, a peasant farmer from Haiti, said smallholders continue to struggle against unfair terms of trade. He feared the climate negotiations were being carried out in the same vein.

“REDD is one of the examples where poor farmers will lose land to give way to plantations of trees under the excuse that they are used as carbon sink,” said Fetile.

He said indigenous farmers have the solution to global warming, but are not included in the negotiations.

“Let’s go back to the indigenous ways of life,” said Fetile. “Let’s evaluate the way in which we’re producing because therein lies the climate change problem.”

As the politicians join negotiatiors in Cancún, and agreements are hammered out, civil society began asserting its voice. A massive march is planned for Dec. 7.

(END/2010)

Wildlifers worry the Forest Rights Act will threaten India's last critical habitats, which include Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. Credit: Keya Acharya/IPS

Commentary by Keya Acharya

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 5, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) While the parlaying at the climate talks in Cancún broke for the weekend, a group of 155 legislators from 16 of the G20 major economies met in the Mexican Senate to discuss how to influence their countries’ ministers to agree to an international commitment that obligated them to pass national laws on climate action.

The group, called GLOBE, or Global Legislators’ Organisation for a Balanced Environment, has been lobbying the major economies to pass national emissions reductions laws, a major barrier to agreement at the Conference of Parties (COP).

So far, Brazil, Germany, South Korea and India have passed national legislation for climate change abatement, while China, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa are in the process of doing so.

GLOBE points to India’s political action on climate change as a significant outcome.

Indeed, India’s initiative to enact national policies on climate change has been commendable. It says it will reduce its emissions by 20 to 25 percent by 2020.

In 2008, India rolled out a National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), dealing with initiatives in eight key areas till 2017: solar and energy efficiency; sustainable habitat; sustainable agriculture; water; Himalayan ecosystem; Green India; and strategic knowledge on climate change.

The policy has been amplified in various fields. Talks are on between industry research institutions and governance for a low-carbon growth strategy, the recommendations of which are to become part of Inda’s 12th five-year plan of national policies in 2012.

There are proposals for a carbon tax on coal consumption, and a national mission on enhanced energy efficiency has mandated 700 of India’s most energy-intensive units to reduce their consumption, with incentives for those who reduce more than their mandated percentage. The refrigeration and lighting industries have had mandatory efficiency standards in place since January 2010.

The Jawaharlal Nehru solar mission will produce 20,000 MW of solar power, 20 million solar collectors and 20 million lighting systems by 2022, and its sustainable habitat strategy will buttonhole environmental and energy efficiency in housing and transportation.

The country also has an ambitious eco-restoration programme under its Green India Mission, to develop 20 million hectares of land in the next 10 years, calculated to sequester 43 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

The reforestation programme has a REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) component that India is pushing at the COP in Cancún.

Jairam Ramesh, by far one of the country’s most dynamic environment ministers, says he takes pride in the fact that its network of scientists (Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment) was the first in developing countries to bring out a Greenhouse Gas Inventory early in 2010.

So far, so good: India is good at passing legislation when it has the political will to do so. The country already has one of the most comprehensive environmental laws, some of them, such as on air and water pollution, enacted decades ago.

It is the implementation of these laws that is its ‘Achilles heel’, so to speak. Its new climate change policies fall into a sea of existing laws on prevention of air and water pollution, yet toxicity from both is already rampant in the country.

With nearly 70 percent of India’s energy requirements being met by coal, imposing a carbon tax is already encountering political obstacles.

Its Green India Mission has encountered thus far the most criticism for its bureaucratic vision and controversial use of land for reforestation. With tribal communities already protesting that they are being forcibly thrown off community lands in the name of state forests, the mission’s aim of bringing in massive areas of other lands, such as those used for shifting cultivation by tribal communities, will only exacerbate the current conflict between local communities and state forest officials.

India’s Forest Rights Act 2006 officially recognises pre-existing rights of tribal communities living for aeons on lands that later were classified as forests. It is already encountering hurdles by conservationists and the forest departments in some cases, and faces further problems with the Green India Mission’s ambiguity over its usage of lands such as those used for shifting cultivation by tribal communities.

The central Indian states of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and the eastern state of Orissa are already in the throes of violent unrest by village communities protesting their government’s takeover of lands they live on and handing them to mining industries.

The ambiguity of the definition of which lands can be used to ‘green’ India, and what afforestation techniques will be used to do so, falls into the current scenario of unrest and resentment. Activists are already protesting that the Mission’s promise of community participation is farcical, since its community groups are controlled by the Forest Department.

Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the complex web of difficulties that India’s climate change policy faces, it is laudable that the country has had a minister rooting – unusually hard – for the environment.

In today’s climate, hope for positive action is essential.

Share this

Farmers have a role to play in reducing emissions. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi*

CANCÚN, Dec 5, 2010, (IPS/TerraViva) – Global agriculture contributes in the region of 17 percent to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, but according to the World Bank, climate smart agriculture techniques can both reduce emissions and meet the challenge of producing enough food for a growing world population.

“As much as agriculture is part of the problem, it is also part of the solution,” said Inger Anderson, the World Bank’s vice president on sustainable development.

Anderson was speaking to agriculture, food security and climate change experts at Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico on Dec. 4.

Agriculture experts are punting a scenario in which farming delivers a “triple win”, sequestering carbon in soil and biomass, gaining greater resilience to drought and higher temperatures, and improve food security and farmers’ incomes.

Achieving this miracle will require varying interventions in different areas, but examples can already be found.

On China’s Loess Plateau, thousands of years of agriculture and grazing turned forests into a dry zone. The loss of trees left a fine yellow soil vulnerable to erosion; the erosion filled the rivers with silt and created damaging annual flooding.

Sixteen years ago, the Chinese government and the World Bank set out to change land use practices in the area. The project enlisted the local population to construct silt dams and terracing and planting fruit trees and grass on slopes to steep for other crops. Locals were paid for their labour on the rehabilitation projects, but more importantly were granted cheap long-term leases on land which is rapidly recovering its ecological and agricultural viability.

On the much-smaller Humbo Plateau in Ethiopia, smallholders have succeeded in regenerating forest and restoring productivity. Farmers there have adopted new rules for sustainable use of wooded areas – helped by energy-efficient stoves that reduce the demand for fuel wood and charcoal. Alongside nurturing the regrowth of badly degraded woodland, training has allowed locals to diversify into raising livestock and poultry as well as non-farm activities.

The Humbo project is one of the few African Clean Development Mechanism projects, receiving its first $34,000 cheque for carbon stored in its 2,700 hectares of forest in October 2010.

Farmers in Malawi, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Niger and Zambia are also involved in agro-forestry, integrating trees into  food crop and livestock systems.

“In this way, a green cover on the land is sustained throughout the year,” said Anderson. “These systems bolster nutrient supply through nitrogen fixation and water conservation, and they increase the direct production of food, fodder, fuel, fibre and income from products under these trees.”

Farmers in Malawi, have more than doubled their maize harvests when growing their crops under a canopy of trees. Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, the chief executive officer of Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, said African countries need to work out strategies that will take into consideration the livelihoods of rural communities.

“The challenge is that in Africa, we thought only of science and technology as a way of adaptation to climate change,” said Sibanda.

“We started talking about adaption in Africa before we could even do research on the opportunities that come with community livelihoods.”

Diana Liverman, a researcher from the University of Arizona, said smallholder farmer have long relied on indigenous knowledge to adapt to conditions, but escalating climate change may exceed their capacities.

“To use indigenous knowledge at this point, when the climate has drastically changed, could be a challenge because it might not be able to cope with the present realities of the phenomenon,” said Liverman.

Instead, she said, modern science should help advance indigenous knowledge to help farmers adapt. But she stressed that farmers should be at the heart of deciding which course to take.

“Researchers should refrain from making choices for African farmers,” said Liverman. “Some will want the modern technologies while others would like to continue with the traditional ones. What needs to happen is that adaptation funds should be availed to all.”

Scientists, researchers and policy makers should hasten their pace in finding adaptation measures, said Sibanda, because unless action is taken now, the impacts of climate change could derail sub-Saharan Africa’s revitalised efforts to transform the agricultural sector.

“This could deflate the optimism this has created in achieving a uniquely African ‘Green and Rainbow’ Revolution,” said Sibanda.

The continent is pushing forward with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which focuses on four key areas: land and water management, market access, food supply and hunger and agriculture research.

Dr Josué Dioné, the director of food security and sustainable development division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, noted that CAADP will strenghen the agriculture sector in Africa and improve food security, but he warned though that countries should come up with climate-proof programmes to secure gains.

“Climate change in Africa is both a challenge and opportunity,” said Dioné. “By using the best practices to counter the impact of climate change, we could stop importing food for our people.”

*Terna Gyuse in Cape Town contributed to this report.

(END/2010)

CANCÚN, Dec 4, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – Gender inequalities magnify the impacts of climate change on women worldwide. Activists with the network Gender CC – Women for Climate Justice say that financing a response to climate change must take this into account and be responsive to the needs of women.

Across the global South, where climate change is already threatening the health, security and incomes of poor communities, women have unequal access to ownership of land and other resources that are key to resilience to shocks such as climate change. Women typically labour in farms or informal businesses without ever gaining control over decision-making.

“Women are marginalised in decision-making in African countries and the same holds true on issues of climate change where they are most affected,” said Eunice Warue, of Gender-CC Kenya.

This marginalisation comes at a cost not just to women, but to society as a whole. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural production could increase by as much as 20 percent, if women had equal access to land or credit for example.

As representatives of nearly 200 governments negotiate over designing a response to climate change, activists insist gender must be taken into account.

Gender-CC is calling on all parties at the negotiating table in the Mexican city of Cancún to consult widely with women and poor communities to ensure a gender-balanced outcome in the adaptation fund.

“Women’s meaningful participation and community consultation must also be ensured in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the projects that are to be funded,” said Kelebogile Nthite, a member of Gender-CC South Africa.

As they push for their place in the sun at the climate change negotiations, African women are in solidarity with their sisters throughout the world to shape an agreement.

Nina Somera, from Gender CC in the Philippines, weighs in on the broad priorities for mitigation and adaptation.

“The group recommends that money be allocated for public infrastructure such as water, transport and not highly sophisticated but risky technologies such as nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage.”

But she said countries should not forget fundamental issues affecting women, including food and water and access to land which must be immediately addressed.

“Unless these older issues are addressed, the availability of more money might only fuel a scramble for resources resulting to further dispossessions, indignity and violence against women,” said Somera.

(END/2010)

Uruguayan cattle out to pasture. Credit:Courtesy of the Uruguayan Society of Hereford Breeders.

By Marcela Valente*

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 3, 2010 (Tierramérica/TerraViva) – Some of Latin America’s major cattle-producing countries will begin working as a team in 2011 to quantify the greenhouse-effect gas emissions from their bovine industry — and to come up with options for reducing them.

This news comes just as the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is under way in Mexico’s Caribbean resort city of Cancún.

The planned consortium, made up of scientists from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Uruguay, was selected to receive financing from FONTAGRO (Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology).

The fund, whose members include 14 Latin American countries and Spain, issued a call for proposals for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and for strengthening food security.

The winner was a proposal called “Climate Change and Cattle: Quantification and Options for Mitigation of Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Pastured Cattle.”

The project will begin by measuring methane using a conventional technique and another more elaborate approach, developed in Argentina, in order to compare the two, according to project coordinator Verónica Ciganda, a Uruguayan agricultural engineer.

Latin America produces just 11.7 percent of the world’s climate-changing gas emissions, like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, among others.

But a look at the origin of South American emissions finds that most come from rural activities. In Argentina, livestock produces 41 percent of the country’s emissions, while in Brazil it is 56 percent, Uruguay 78 percent, and Paraguay 97 percent, according to a study by Argentina’s National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA).

Within the agricultural sector, it is cattle production that generates most emissions. In South America there are 312 million head of cattle — more than 31 percent of the global total.

Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is generated in the digestive process of ruminant livestock, as the feed ferments. The gas is released into the atmosphere through cattle exhalation and belching, and in the anaerobic decomposition of the manure.

The principal source of nitrous oxide, meanwhile, is cattle urine. To measure it, the scientists will use closed flow chambers in which urine is treated with a known concentration of nitrogen to then measure the emissions of this gas.

Although the quantity of animal-origin nitrous oxide is less than that of methane, its relative contribution to climate warming is greater.

The region’s challenge is to reduce emissions while maintaining its competitive edge in the agricultural sector, especially in the production of foods like beef and milk.

Once the measurement phase is done, the experts will study the results to determine how they can reduce greenhouse emissions caused by cattle, said Ciganda, who works at Uruguay’s National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA).

For example, the scientists may focus on a balanced diet for the cattle, better pastures, genetic improvement of cattle species and more efficient sanitary regulations.

“There are pastures that have more tannins and less fibre, and that is better for curbing methane emissions, but we have to be careful that in reducing the production of some gases that we don’t increase others,” Ciganda told Tierramérica.

The hypothesis is that nitrous oxide emissions are low, she said, but if the results of the measurements show them to be higher, then the experts will also have to work on the livestock’s diet.

The research will take place in different areas of production, whether in corrals or open fields, where feeding can vary widely. The study will also try to determine how different types of forage affect the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

The project will put to the test a new and more precise methodology for measuring methane emissions, veterinarian Guillermo Berra, head of the Argentine section, told Tierramérica.

Three years ago, at the INTA’s Patho-Biology Institute, Berra began using a device that is set up on individual animals to measure emissions.

The device, attached using a harness, has a system of tubes that run to the rumen, the first digestive chamber in the cow, where a flow sensor registers the volume of gas emitted.

The sensor sends an electronic signal via Internet to a computer to record the emissions. The method was proven in tests by several INTA units, and in 2011 will be implemented in a systematic way.

Berra noted that the greenhouse gas emissions reports that are presented periodically by the member countries of the Convention on Climate Change are “estimates, not measurements.”

The regional project is aiming for concrete measurements, which are essential for progress towards mitigating climate change. “In order to reduce emissions, we have to begin with very clear measurements,” said the veterinarian.

In the view of Edgar Cárdenas, professor at the National University of Colombia’s school of veterinary medicine, the project will establish a baseline for international negotiations on milk and beef. Until now, he said, those emissions estimates put the blame on cattle-producing countries in international markets and hurt their exports.

Latin America is not included in Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which lists the specific emissions-reduction targets of the industrialised countries.

But the first period of obligations established by the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end in 2012, and in the talks taking place in Cancún (Nov. 29 to Dec. 10) there is growing pressure on the industrialised North to expand reduction commitments to the larger developing countries, like Brazil, the world’s second largest beef producer, and first in beef exports.

Emissions mitigation options are under discussion across the region, but with care to ensure that they do not undermine livestock production, said Berra.

“It is extremely important to defend emissions reduction per unit of production, for example, per kilo of beef or litre of milk. If they demand an absolute reduction of emissions, it could lead to a decline in production,” he warned.

The project also seeks to improve the consortium countries’ position on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the United Nations to review and synthesise the most advanced climate science.

The experts hope to achieve this through the quantification of methane and nitrous oxide emissions of pastured cattle and determining the options for their mitigation in each of the countries.

To do so, in addition to the financing from FONTAGRO, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, the project will have backing from the government of New Zealand, said Ciganda.

* This Tierramérica story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network http://www.cdkn.org. (END)

Share this