Pakistan's Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi speaks to an IPS reporter in Cancún. Credit: Keya Acharya/TerraViva

By Keya Acharya

CANCÚN, Mexico, Dec 7, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – On the sidelines of the ministerial deliberations at Cancún underway Tuesday, a panel of scientists, climate policy experts and politicians outlined the devastating impacts of the recent floods in northwest Pakistan that destroyed 18 million homes, affecting 20 million people and costing the country five percent of its GDP. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

Wangari Maathai

By Wangari Maathai *

NAIROBI, Dec 4, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – 2010 A year after much touted climate change summit in Copenhagen, country negotiators from around the world are together again to work out an international response to climate change. Continue Reading

Christiana Figueres, secretaria ejecutiva de ña Convención de Cambio Climático. Crédito: CMNUCC

Por Emilio Godoy *

CANCÚN, 3 dic (IPS/TerraViva) – Al término de la primera semana de negociaciones en la cumbre del clima, que se desarrolla en este centro turístico mexicano, se ve lejana la posibilidad de que las casi 200 delegaciones nacionales presentes acuerden la renovación del Protocolo de Kyoto, que expira en 2012. Continue Reading

Mayan pyramid of criticism of polluting countries in Cancunmesse. / Credit:Diana Cariboni/IPS

CANCÚN, Mexico, Dec 3, 2010 “The hurricane season officially ended on Nov. 30,” a local shopkeeper told this journalist reassuringly as she entered his store with her hair blown in every direction by the wind on a drizzly, cloudy day. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

By Daniela Estrada*

SANTIAGO, Dec 2, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) – The wide-ranging knowledge about climate variation possessed by native people and other small farmers, such as the people in one region of Colombia, is almost a perfect match to scientific measurements recorded on high-tech instruments. Continue Reading

The timing of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's statement was deliberate, NGOs say. Credit: White House photo

By Darryl D’Monte*

CANCÚN, Dec 1, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) -  Japanese NGOs feel that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s categorical statement in parliament on Monday that his government would not under any circumstances be party to a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in that historic city in 1997, went “beyond irony”. Continue Reading