Inter Press Service (IPS) has assembled a contingent of African journalists to report from the “African COP” – COP 17 in Durban, South Africa. The team will produce daily features, analysis and podcasts for TerraViva and material in English, Spanish and French for IPS’s global news service and Tierramérica. Follow the team’s coverage in real-time on Twitter at @ipsenvironment and @ipsafrica and connect with IPS Environment and IPS Africa on Facebook.

IPS reporting will reflect the agency’s focus on the South and the role of civil society, with particular emphasis on the activity of non-governmental organisations, adaptation in poor countries and the gender dimensions of climate change.

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 13 déc (IPS) – Malgré le risque élevé, il est difficile de convaincre les politiciens de prendre des mesures immédiates pour empêcher d’éventuels changements climatiques et de rendre disponibles les fonds nécessaires à cet effet.

Les scientifiques ont à plusieurs reprises attiré l’attention sur les effets des changements climatiques – si les gouvernements n’agissent pas au plus tôt, cela provoquera une catastrophe irréversible.

Voici des extraits de l’interview que Régine Günther avait accordée à IPS un peu avant la fin des travaux de la 17ème Conférence des parties de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques, à Durban, en Afrique du Sud.

Q: Quelles peuvent être les conséquences si le 17ème sommet des Nations Unies sur le changement climatique à Durban se termine sans résultats concrets ni objectifs?

R: Il y a plusieurs scénarios. Si les pays parviennent à prendre des engagements volontaires de réduction des émissions de carbone qu’ils avaient pris au cours des deux derniers sommets de Copenhague et de Cancun, nous allons constater une augmentation des températures entre trois et quatre degrés Celsius en moyenne. S’ils parviennent à lancer un processus à Durban qui mènera à des objectifs de réduction à forte échelle des émissions d’ici à 2020, nous pourrions réussir à ne pas dépasser une élévation de deux degrés Celsius.

Mais pour l’instant, cela semble inquiétant. Si nous continuons comme avant et nous ne mettons même pas en œuvre les engagements volontaires, nous allons atteindre une élévation dangereuse de température de six ou sept degrés Celsius.

Q: Que se passera-t-il si des températures moyennes augmentent de plus de deux degrés Celsius?

R: Une augmentation de deux degrés Celsius a déjà des effets négatifs. Si nous allons au‑delà, le changement climatique deviendra dangereux. Les glaciers vont fondre, jusqu’à trois milliards de personnes souffriront de graves pénuries d’eau, principalement dans les pays en développement, nous pourrions perdre jusqu’à 30 pour cent de notre biodiversité, la sécheresse conduira à l’insécurité alimentaire, de vastes régions seront inondées en permanence, y compris les petites îles, et ainsi de suite. C’est pourquoi le changement climatique n’est pas seulement un problème environnemental. C’est une menace pour les moyens de subsistance et les économies.

Q: Tout le monde parle des effets drastiques du changement climatique sur les pays en développement. Quels seront en général les effets sur les pays du Nord?

R: Rappelez-vous la vague de chaleur importante en Europe en 2003. C’était un été très chaud (avec plusieurs personnes décédées de coups de chaleur). Si nous ne parvenons pas à un contrôle du changement climatique, l’été de 2003 deviendra un été normal en 2040. En 2060, il sera considéré comme un été frais. Les Etats-Unis ont également ressenti l’impact de l’évolution des conditions météorologiques cette année, avec un nombre inhabituel d’ouragans et de tempêtes. Alors, le monde industrialisé connaîtra également beaucoup de changements et devra s’adapter.

Q: Beaucoup de gens des pays en développement devront-ils migrer, comme le prédisent certains scientifiques?

R: Cela est fort probable. Et affectera également le Nord en général. Si la sécheresse et la famine augmentent dans le Sud, les gens seront incapables de continuer de vivre là. Et s’il y a des milliers et des milliers de migrants climatiques, la question est de savoir, bien sûr, qui pourra leur offrir un refuge. De nombreuses personnes attendront beaucoup du Nord.

Q: A quel moment sera-t-il trop tard d’agir?

R: Si vous mesurez les dangers du changement climatique sur la base limite des deux degrés Celsius, nous devrons atteindre le pic des émissions de carbone mondiales au cours de cette décennie. Les scientifiques affirment qu’une réduction drastique des émissions de CO2 d’ici à 2020 serait encore une option, mais vraiment la toute dernière. Je crois que d’ici à 2020, il sera trop tard. Néanmoins, nous devons continuer à faire tous les efforts possibles, parce qu’il y a une grande différence si nous vivons dans un monde plus chaud de deux, cinq ou six degrés.

Q: Pourquoi pensez-vous qu’il sera trop tard pour les réductions d’émissions d’ici à 2020?

R: Plus les émissions mondiales de carbone tendent vers le pic, plus forte doit être la tendance nécessaire des réductions. Il sera non seulement très coûteux, mais aussi extrêmement difficile d’atteindre ce résultat. Il y aura des moments précis où il ne faudra pas beaucoup de choses pour maintenir le changement climatique sous la limite des deux degrés Celsius. Une fois que nous aurons atteint cette limite, ce qui signifie qu’une certaine quantité de gaz à effet de serre se trouve dans l’atmosphère, le processus de tentative de réduction des températures prendra des décennies, parce que l’atmosphère réagit lentement aux changements.

Q: Pourquoi est-il si difficile de convaincre les politiciens d’agir, malgré ces scénarios d’horreur?

R: Les facteurs prépondérants de l’action humaine contribuant au changement climatique, les industries de charbon, de pétrole et de gaz, sont les plus gros bénéficiaires de nos économies industrialisées actuelles. Ils travaillent avec de grands groupes de pression et d’importantes sommes d’argent contre la tendance visant à réduire leur part de l’économie.

Il est également important de noter que les politiciens sont élus pour quatre ou cinq ans, pas jusqu’en 2040. En quatre ans, les effets du changement climatique ne se ressentent pas très fortement. Les grands changements se situent dans l’avenir et viennent très lentement. En conséquence, il y a un fossé entre la réalité d’aujourd’hui et les connaissances scientifiques sur les effets du changement climatique si nous n’agissons pas.

(FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 13 déc (IPS) – Pour la communauté des Laibon, une sous-tribu du groupe ethnique des Masaï au Kenya, les 33.000 hectares de la forêt de Loita, dans la province de la Vallée du Rift, c’est plus qu’une simple forêt. C’est un temple.

“C’est notre temple. Nos Dieux y vivent. Nous cueillons des herbes de cet endroit. Nous l’utilisons pour l’apiculture. Cela fait donc partie de nos moyens de subsistance”, a déclaré Olonana Ole Pulei, qui était à Durban, en Afrique du Sud, pour représenter sa communauté à la 17ème Conférence des parties de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques.

Selon Nigel Crawhall, directeur du secrétariat du ‘Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee’ (Comité de coordination des peuples autochtones d’Afrique – IPACC), différentes communautés africaines ont d’importantes connaissances autochtones qu’ils utilisent dans la conservation des forêts et de la biodiversité en général, et cela devrait être pris en compte lors des négociations à Durban.

“Différentes communautés ont de différentes pratiques qu’ils utilisent dans la conservation des forêts”, a-t-il dit.

Crawhall a donné l’exemple de la façon dont les communautés pygmées, les Bambuti et les Batwa, en République démocratique du Congo, ont conservé la forêt en utilisant des méthodes traditionnelles. Ces deux communautés dépendent de la biodiversité de la vie animale dans les forêts équatoriales pour leur survie.

“Habituellement, ils savent comment identifier des arbres typiques qui peuvent être coupés dans le but de créer une ouverture unique sur la canopée, ce qui éclaire les forêts touffues du Congo. Cet éclairage attire alors les animaux, les oiseaux et les insectes, leur donnant ainsi l’opportunité de chasser”, a déclaré Crawhall à IPS.

Cela permet de conserver aussi bien la biodiversité que les forêts, parce que cette méthode ne peut fonctionner que si la forêt canopée est intacte.

Au Kenya, la culture maasai interdit à tous les membres de la communauté d’abattre un arbre, soit pour le bois de chauffage ou pour tout autre but. Il a été également interdit aux gens de toucher aux racines principales ou de retirer entièrement l’écorce d’un arbre pour l’extraction des plantes.

Selon leurs croyances culturelles, seules les branches des arbres peuvent être utilisées pour le bois de chauffage, et leurs racines fibreuses pour les herbes. Si l’écorce d’un arbre a une valeur thérapeutique, alors on peut juste enlever une petite portion en créant un “V” dans l’écorce. La blessure est ensuite fermée à l’aide de sol humide.

“Nous croyons que le sol aide à la guérison de la blessure sur un arbre. Ceci fait partie de la culture, et nous croyons tous que c’est une abomination de blesser un arbre, et ne pas l’aider à guérir”, a indiqué Ole Pulei.

C’est une pratique qui a été transmise de génération en génération chez les membres de la communauté maasai. C’est cette connaissance indigène qui a contribué à la conservation de la forêt de Loita dans la communauté des Laibon.

“Toutes les activités d’exploitation forestière observées sur la terre maasai, y compris la destruction de la forêt de Mau, sont faites par des étrangers parce que la culture massaï n’autorise pas de telles activités. C’est la connaissance autochtone qui aide à la conservation des forêts”, a déclaré Ole Pulci à IPS.

De telles croyances font des forêts une partie de la communauté dans laquelle ses membres ont un attachement pour les arbres, et où la destruction d’un arbre pourrait être considéré comme une offense aux Dieux et leur culture.

“Nous avons plusieurs autres communautés sur tout le continent, qui coexistent avec les forêts. Nous pouvons citer, entre autres, la communauté des Touareg en Algérie, la communauté des Yiaku dans la région Laikipia du Kenya, la communauté des Ogiek toujours au Kenya, la communauté des Kung au Botswana”, a indiqué Crawhall.

Selon Crawhall, tous les Africains sont des autochtones, bien qu’il existe certains groupes qui vivent de chasse et des cueillette, tandis que d’autres groupes pratiquent le pastoralisme, et d’autres l’agriculture de terre ferme.

Malgré le fait qu’il n’y ait aucune définition standard pour les peuples autochtones, la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les Droits des peuples autochtones en 2007, reconnaît que certaines communautés, en raison des circonstances historiques et environnementales, se sont retrouvées hors du système étatique et sont sous-représentées dans la gouvernance.

“Les Bushmen de la région d’Afrique australe, ou la communauté des Ogiek du Kenya, qui vivent dans les forêts, constituent un exemple typique de groupements classés comme autochtones”, a expliqué Crawhall.

Il souligne que l’Afrique compte plus de 40 groupements dans les différents pays qui vivent entièrement de chasse et de cueillette. Toutefois, l’IPACC travaille en étroite collaboration avec 155 communautés provenant de 22 pays africains qui sont reconnues comme autochtones du fait de leur contexte historique et environnemental.

En conséquence, les représentants de ces communautés avaient rejoint le reste du monde à Durban pour se faire entendre, de sorte que leur contribution à la conservation des forêts soit reconnue comme faisant partie des efforts pour l’adaptation et l’atténuation du changement climatique.

“Nous croyons que la connaissance écologique traditionnelle africaine est le fondement pour des politiques nationales d’adaptation efficaces et appropriées”, a ajouté Crawhall.

Par le biais du secrétariat de l’IPACC, les 155 organisations des communautés à la base en Afrique avaent rédigé leur position pour la plateforme de négociation de Durban. Elles voulaient que les négociateurs trouvent une position qui soit représentative des parties d’Afrique, des organisations des peuples autochtones africains, des institutions traditionnelles, des autorités traditionnelles et des systèmes de valeur.

* Cet article fait partie d’une série soutenue par le Réseau de connaissance du climat et du développement.

(FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 12 déc (IPS) – Le monde s’engage de plus en plus à des niveaux dangereux de réchauffement climatique avec déjà une autre incapacité des nations du monde à accepter des réductions nécessaires des émissions de carbone ici à Durban, en Afrique du Sud.

Cependant, puisque la 17ème Conférence des parties (COP 17) s’est achevée tôt dimanche matin, les membres ont convenu de parler d’un nouveau traité mondial visant à réduire les émissions.

Après deux semaines et 29 heures supplémentaires d’intenses et âpres négociations, les 193 nations participant aux négociations des Nations Unies sur le climat ont convenu d’un ensemble complexe et technique de documents appelés la “Plateforme de Durban”. Ces documents comprennent la poursuite du Protocole de Kyoto, une structure formelle pour un Fonds vert pour le climat, de nouveaux mécanismes de marché, et plus.

Le plus grand développement parvenu à l’aube du dimanche (11 décembre) est un accord pour négocier un nouveau traité mondial visant à réduire les émissions d’ici à 2015. Bien que cela puisse ressembler tout simplement à accepter davantage de rencontres, c’est la première fois que toutes les nations ont accepté d’être régies par un nouveau traité mondial de réduction des émissions conformément à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC).

Actuellement, les réductions des émissions promises par les pays industrialisés et celles de la Chine, du Brésil, d’Afrique du Sud, de l’Inde et autres, en vertu de l’Accord de Copenhague en 2009, garantissent un monde qui est au moins à 3,5 degrés Celsius en moyenne plus chaud, selon la science du climat. Ce sera le double de cela dans de grandes parties du monde. Certaines analyses indiquent que cette moyenne mondiale pourrait être encore plus élevée pour atteindre quatre ou cinq degrés Celsius, menaçant notre espèce d’anéantissement.

En dépit de la roublardise politique des Etats-Unis, du Canada et même de l’Union européenne, le fait est que les réductions promises par les pays en développement sont plus importantes que celles du monde industrialisé qui est responsable de 75 pour cent des émissions humaines totales dans l’atmosphère.

“Il n’y a toujours pas de nouvelles promesses sur la table, et le processus convenu à Durban vers l’augmentation de l’ambition et l’intensification des réductions des émissions, est incertain dans ses résultats”, a déclaré Bill Hare, directeur de ‘Climate Analytics’ (Analytique climatique), un groupe consultatif scientifique sur le climat, à but non lucratif, basé en Allemagne.

Le président de la COP 17, le Sud-Africain Maite Nkoana-Mashabane et d’autres ont supplié les pays de mettre leurs propres intérêts de côté “pour le plus grand bien de la planète et de ses habitants”. Les pays riches comme les Etats-Unis, le Canada et l’Arabie Saoudite ont bloqué les progrès et plusieurs fronts, laissant les nations plus petites furieuses et frustrées.

“La mauvaise nouvelle est que les bloqueurs dirigés par les Etats-Unis ont réussi à introduire une clause de sortie vitale qui pourrait facilement empêcher le prochain grand accord sur le climat d’être juridiquement contraignant”, a affirmé Kumi Naidoo, directeur exécutif de ‘Greenpeace International’.

Même si un traité fort juridiquement contraignant est accepté en 2015, il devra être ratifié par les gouvernements avant d’entrer en vigueur. Il a fallu plusieurs années pour ratifier le Protocole de Kyoto que les Etats-Unis ont soutenu et ont ensuite refusé de ratifier à la suite de l’élection de George W. Bush.

Attendre jusqu’en 2020 avant d’opérer d’importantes réductions signifie que ces réductions devront être beaucoup plus profondes et beaucoup plus coûteuses pour avoir le moindre espoir de maintenir les températures en dessous de deux degrés Celsius, a précédemment souligné Hare à IPS.

“Le niveau collectif d’ambition du monde pour les réductions des émissions doit être considérablement augmenté, et sous peu”, a déclaré Alden Meyer, directeur de la stratégie et de la politique à la ‘Union of Concerned Scientists’ (Union des scientifiques préoccupés).

Diverses analyses montrent que les émissions mondiales devraient atteindre un maximum entre 2015 et 2020 pour gagner une chance raisonnable de moins de deux degrés Celsius à un coût supportable. Si ce pic et cette baisse surviennent plus tard, les coûts et les risques de dépasser deux degrés Celsius grimperont en flèche.

“Des discours vigoureux et des décisions soigneusement rédigées ne peuvent pas modifier les lois de la physique. L’atmosphère répond à une chose, et une chose seulement – les émissions”, a indiqué Meyer.

Il était clair que nos gouvernements, au cours de ces deux dernières semaines, ont écouté les sociétés polluantes à forte intensité de carbone au lieu d’écouter les populations, a déclaré Naidoo dans un communiqué.

La “Plateforme de Durban” comprend une deuxième période d’engagement du Protocole de Kyoto qui commencera à partir de janvier 2013, évitant un vide à la fin de la première période d’engagement, qui finit l’année prochaine. La durée de la deuxième période d’engagement doit être décidée à la COP 18, au Qatar.

Les pays en développement ont insisté sur cette condition parce que Kyoto est le seul accord juridiquement contraignant de réduction des émissions. Cependant, il a seulement demandé de petites réductions aux pays industrialisés comme ceux d’Europe, le Canada, l’Australie, le Japon et quelques autres. Les Etats-Unis se sont désengagés et le Canada a ignoré ses obligations et a augmenté les émissions de 24 pour cent. Et maintenant, le Canada, le Japon et la Russie ont déclaré qu’ils ne participeront pas à la deuxième période d’engagement.

La poursuite de Kyoto “est très importante”, a indiqué Christiana Figueres, secrétaire exécutive de la CCNUCC. Les pays participants doivent soumettre leurs offres de réduction des émissions d’ici à mai 2012.

Il n’existe aucune adoption formelle d’une deuxième période d’engagement selon les termes mêmes des documents, a déclaré Pablo Solón, ancien négociateur en chef de l’Etat plurinational de Bolivie. “La décision réelle a été simplement reportée à la prochaine COP”. Kyoto demeure “en agonie”, a-t-il affirmé.

Le seul progrès par rapport au Fonds vert pour le climat (FVC) a été dans sa conception et sa gouvernance. Le FVC est censé réunir 100 milliards de dollars d’aide annuellement à partir de 2020 pour assister les nations en développement à réduire les émissions et les aider à s’adapter aux changements climatiques. Il n’y avait pas d’engagements sur la provenance de cet argent. Ce qui a été convenu, c’est de mettre en place un “plan de travail” pour mobiliser d’importants fonds pour le climat auprès des sources publiques et privées à la fois. (FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 10 déc (IPS) – Les efforts visant à placer l’eau comme un point distinct dans les négociations sur les changements climatiques s’intensifient à Durban, en Afrique du Sud, où se déroule le 17ème sommet des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques.

Des experts de l’eau estiment que faire cela conduira à une attention plus grande sur le développement d’une politique, et attirera davantage de ressources dans le secteur de l’eau à travers des programmes d’adaptation.

“Pour chacun d’entre nous, la première chose que vous utilisez quand vous vous réveillez le matin, c’est l’eau, et quand nous allons au lit, c’est l’eau. Pourtant, elle est considérée comme une chose acquise”, déclare Chris Moseki, directeur de recherche à ‘Water Research Commission’ (Commission de recherche sur l’eau – WRC) en Afrique du Sud. La WRC est un membre du Partenariat mondial de l’eau (PME) – une alliance mondiale d’organisations travaillant sur les questions de l’eau.

L’accès à l’eau est une question urgente ici dans la région d’Afrique australe, où près de 100 millions de personnes n’ont pas suffisamment accès à l’eau. Une présentation réalisée par le ‘Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’ (Conseil de la recherche scientifique et industrielle – CSIR) en Afrique du Sud montre que la région deviendra plus chaude et plus sèche au cours des 50 à 100 prochaines années, mettant en danger les fermes, l’industrie, l’approvisionnement en eau domestique et les écosystèmes naturels.

Des experts internationaux de l’eau et des décideurs politiques craignent que le fait de prévoir des changements dans la disponibilité de l’eau ne bénéfice pas de l’importance qu’il mérite. Bai-Mass Taal, le secrétaire exécutif du Conseil des ministres africains de l’Eau (CMAE), affirme qu’ils travaillent à rehausser le profil de l’eau dans le cadre de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC).

“Nous disons aux parties, écoutez: nous apprécions ce que vous faites dans d’autres secteurs, mais sans aborder directement l’eau, tout cela sera vain”, déclare Taal.

A ce stade, les questions de l’eau sont actuellement en train d’être examinées par les négociateurs des traités dans le cadre d’une planification, d’une priorisation et d’une mise en œuvre de l’adaptation aux changements climatiques, plus larges.

Dr Ania Grobicki, secrétaire exécutive du PME, affirme qu’avec un nombre croissant de pays censés souffrir d’une pénurie d’eau, la position actuelle visant à avoir l’eau dans les négociations sur le climat est inappropriée.

“Le PIB (produit intérieur brut) de nombreux pays les moins avancés dépend de l’eau. Plus de 50 pour cent de la nourriture pour le monde viendra d’Afrique dans l’avenir, et cela dépend de la disponibilité de l’eau”, dit-elle. “C’est pourquoi cette discussion devrait aller au-delà de là où elle est maintenant”.

Plus de 70 pour cent de la population de la Communauté de développement d’Afrique australe dépend directement de l’agriculture, en grande majorité de l’agriculture pluviale. Les projections du CSIR font partie de bon nombre d’autres qui attirent l’attention sur la façon dont des changements prévus de pluviométrie, les ressources limitées pour l’adaptation et un manque d’institutions et de capacité à réguler le débit des fleuves laisseront des populations en Afrique australe et à travers le continent extrêmement vulnérables.

Des défis similaires sont prévus non seulement pour l’Afrique, mais aussi à travers le monde puisque les conditions météorologiques changent, mais le manque d’irrigation et d’autres infrastructures en Afrique est un facteur qui renforce la nécessité d’une intervention urgente.

La réponse de l’Afrique

Comme les précipitations changent, l’Afrique est confrontée à de grandes crises. Des millions de personnes ont été confrontées à la famine au Niger et au Mali en 2010 après que la sécheresse a frappé les agriculteurs et les éleveurs. Cette année, la Corne de l’Afrique est confrontée à sa pire sécheresse depuis 50 ans et des millions de personnes souffrent de faim. Selon le Programme alimentaire mondial des Nations Unies, quelque 12,3 millions de personnes dans la Corne ont besoin d’une aide d’urgence.

Rhoda Peace, la commissaire de l’Union africaine pour l’économie rurale et l’agriculture, souligne que lorsque les dirigeants africains parlent de changement climatique, ils parlent invariablement des sécheresses et des inondations, ce qui montre que l’eau est déjà une grande priorité.

En 2008, les chefs d’Etat africains ont convenu de faire de l’eau et de l’assainissement une priorité.

“Les dirigeants ont convenu d’allouer au moins 0,5 pour cent de leur budget national à l’eau”, souligne Peace. “Aujourd’hui, la météo, qui est effectivement le cas, constitue une autre histoire, mais certains pays font de très bons efforts et peuvent atteindre leurs objectifs”.

Fournir un accès adéquat à l’eau à travers l’Afrique coûtera des milliards de dollars. Et ces nombreux gouvernements africains, qui ne parviennent pas à honorer les engagements antérieurs, ne seront pas en mesure de réunir les montants requis sans un appui.

Simon Thuo, le coordinateur du PME pour l’Afrique de l’est, affirme être surpris du fait que malgré ce besoin évident, même les propositions du groupe africain de négociation mentionnent uniquement l’eau au passage. Ensemble avec d’autres experts, il estime que si les négociations sur le climat n’abordent pas la gestion de cette denrée essentielle de façon spécifique, elle ne bénéficiera pas de l’attention et du financement nécessaires. (FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 10 déc (IPS) – Les dernières heures du 17ème sommet des Nations Unies pour les changements climatiques à Durban ont commencé. Depuis l’arrivée de près de 150 ministres et chefs d’Etat mardi, les négociations ont atteint le niveau politique.

Les délégations devraient débattre de la voie à suivre jusqu’à vendredi soir tard, ou même samedi matin.

Les espoirs d’une percée, ou tout au moins de résultats tangibles, sont faibles. Presque personne ne croit qu’une deuxième période d’engagement global du Protocole de Kyoto, le seul instrument international juridiquement contraignant pour réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, qui comprend tous les principaux émetteurs, soit encore possible.

Pour que cela arrive, des économies émergentes comme la Chine, l’Inde, la Corée du Sud, le Mexique et l’Afrique du Sud devraient s’y impliquer, ainsi que les Etats-Unis, un pays qui n’a même pas ratifié la première période du protocole. D’autres grands émetteurs, comme le Canada, la Russie et le Japon ont déjà manifesté leur désintérêt pour une deuxième période d’engagement.

La première période d’engagement du Protocole de Kyoto, en vertu de laquelle 37 pays industrialisés se sont engagés à une moyenne de cinq pour cent de réductions des émissions de carbone par rapport aux niveaux d’émission en 1990, expirera à la fin de 2012.

Au début de cette semaine, les négociations semblaient brièvement quelque peu prometteuses, lorsque le négociateur principal pour la Chine, Xie Zhenhua, a annoncé que son pays était ouvert à des accords internationalement et juridiquement contraignants. Mais sa déclaration s’est rapidement avérée être une partie d’un jeu stratégique. Mais Zhenhua n’a pas dit que la Chine était prête à “faire partie de” ces accords contraignants aussi.

Beaucoup d’experts du climat croient que les Américains ont joué un rôle particulièrement important dans le ralentissement des progrès réalisés dans les négociations.

“L’administration Obama est apparemment venue à Durban pour ne pas être constructive, mais pour retenir d’autres pays. Leurs excuses pour l’inaction montent et baissent comme une marée. Dès qu’une excuse est retirée, une autre émerge”, a déploré Caroline Behringer, la porte-parole du Fonds mondial pour la nature.

Même le secrétaire général de l’ONU, Ban Ki-moon, a refroidi les attentes lors de l’ouverture du segment de haut niveau du sommet mardi. Un accord global juridiquement contraignant “pourrait ne pas être obtenu”, a-t-il indiqué.

Tandis que les négociateurs tentent de parvenir à une décision, l’ambiance dans les couloirs du centre de conférence de Durban, où se tient le sommet, demeure tendue. Les ministres et chefs de délégation se sont repliés dans des salles de conférence afin de débattre davantage du contenu du document de 131 pages, la base de toutes les négociations. Loin des portes fermées, les délégués parlent à voix basses. Jusqu’à l’annonce officielle du résultat final, tout le monde cache son jeu.

La possibilité d’aboutir à une feuille de route en vue d’un accord pour négocier des réductions d’émissions à partir de 2015, qui comprendra les principaux émetteurs et les économies émergentes, n’est pas aussi plausible. Selon cet accord, tous les grands émetteurs de carbone accepteraient des réductions internationalement et juridiquement contraignantes d’ici à 2020 au plus tard.

“Ce que nous voyons, c’est un manque de volonté politique de la part de certains grands émetteurs de parvenir à un résultat à Durban qui soit juste et ambitieux et qui sauve la vie et les moyens de subsistance des millions de gens pauvres et vulnérables qui sont touchés par les changements climatiques aujourd’hui”, explique Tonya Rawe, principal défenseur des politiques de CARE, une organisation humanitaire mondiale.

“Certaines parties disent déjà vouloir retarder les décisions sur un accord juridiquement contraignant jusqu’à 2020. C’est une catastrophe, puisque cela peut créer toute une décennie de zéro progrès”, a-t-il ajouté.

Des délégués craignent que seule une déclaration non contraignante ne soit obtenue, par laquelle les pays annonceront vaguement leur volonté d’accepter des objectifs contraignants de réduction à un certain moment dans l’avenir.

Jusque-là, seule l’Union européenne (UE) et certains autres pays européens, comme la Suisse, ont promis de continuer à faire pression pour des engagements de la part des grands émetteurs de carbone qui ne font pas actuellement partie de l’accord de Kyoto, durant les dernières heures du sommet.

“Toutes les grandes économies doivent s’engager, bien sûr en respectant les responsabilités communes mais différenciées. Si elles ne s’engagent pas à un accord dans un avenir prévisible, elles prennent une responsabilité insoutenable”, a averti Connie Hedegaard, commissaire pour l’action pour le climat à la Commission européenne, qui a parlé au nom de l’UE.

Les négociations ne tournent pas seulement autour d’une extension des termes du Protocole de Kyoto. L’autre sujet important, c’est l’adoption du Fonds vert pour le climat (FVC) à travers lequel l’appui financier pour l’atténuation des changements climatiques et les efforts d’adaptation seront dirigés vers les pays en développement. D’ici à 2020, 100 milliards de dollars devraient être mobilisés annuellement auprès des fonds publics et privés.

Mais les discussions autour du FVC, également, titubent après que plusieurs pays, dont les Etats-Unis, la Bolivie, l’Arabie Saoudite et le Venezuela ont annoncé qu’ils n’étaient pas satisfaits du projet de document et souhaiteraient rouvrir le texte pour des amendements.

En outre, la crise financière mondiale a ralenti les progrès sur le fonds: les pays riches, qui sont censés financer partiellement le FVC, hésitent à prendre des engagements budgétaires. A voir les choses, le fonds est susceptible d’être conclu à Durban, voire pas du tout, mais comme une “coquille vide”, sans des plans concrets sur la façon dont il sera financé.

“Nous n’avons plus de temps à perdre pour sauver ceux qui sont les plus menacés par les changements climatiques”, a exhorté Mizanur Rahman Bijoy, un chercheur au ‘Network on Climate Change’ (Réseau contre les changements climatiques) au Bangladesh. “Mais au lieu d’agir, les gouvernements sont essentiellement préoccupés par leurs économies nationales. De cette façon, aucune décision importante et nécessaire ne sera prise”. (FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 9 déc (IPS) – Les économies émergentes – la Chine, l’Afrique du Sud et le Brésil – ont manifesté leur ouverture aux objectifs légalement contraignants de réduction des émissions de carbone à partir de 2020 lors du sommet des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques à Durban.

Les experts du climat affirment que la volonté des trois pays d’envisager des engagements juridiquement contraignants, même s’ils ne prendront pas un effet immédiat, était potentiellement “un grand pas” pour débloquer l’une des grandes questions politiques des négociations de cette année sur les changements climatiques.

Seule l’Inde continue à refuser de s’engager.

L’Union européenne (UE) a proposé, il y a une semaine, une “feuille de route”, qui stipule que toutes les grandes économies, y compris les pays émergents comme l’Afrique du Sud, le Brésil, l’Inde et la Chine, généralement dénommé le groupe BASIC – et non uniquement les nations industrialisées, comme sous le Protocole de Kyoto actuellement – seront soumises aux objectifs juridiquement contraignants de réduction des émissions de carbone.

Les pays du BASIC sont tous confrontés aux défis de développement, mais sont en même temps de grands contributeurs aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Les grandes économies émergentes et d’autres nations en développement émettent déjà plus de la moitié des émissions actuelles de carbone. Dans les 20 prochaines années, on prévoit qu’elles en émettront les deux-tiers.

Les négociations des 194 nations sur les changements climatiques, qui prennent fin ce 9 décembre, grouillent de spéculations sur la perspective des économies émergentes de s’accorder sur la feuille de route proposée.

Dans une démarche qui a surpris beaucoup après une semaine difficile de négociations qui ont mis en évidence de grands écarts entre les exigences et attentes des différents pays, la Chine a annoncé pour la première fois qu’elle accepterait un accord juridiquement contraignant sur le climat après 2020, au moment où les engagements volontaires actuels expireront. Après avoir d’abord insisté que les exigences de la feuille de route de l’UE étaient “trop élevées”, la Chine semble désormais ouverte pour trouver un terrain d’entente, spécialement avec l’Europe.

“Mais il existe des conditions préalables”, a déclaré Xie Zhenhua, le principal négociateur pour la Chine sur le climat. “Une deuxième période d’engagement de Kyoto est obligatoire pour les nations riches. A la fin (de cette deuxième période), nous devons examiner ce qui a été fait. Sur la base de cette évaluation, nous pouvons commencer à négocier ce dont nous devrons convenir après 2020″.

La Chine a posé cinq conditions dans lesquelles elle envisagerait un accord juridiquement contraignant de réduction de carbone. En dehors des promesses d’une deuxième période d’engagement de réduction de carbone, prises par les nations industrialisées conformément au Protocole de Kyoto, elles comprennent des centaines de milliards de dollars de financement à court et à long terme du climat pour les pays en développement.

La Chine veut également voir le Fonds vert pour le climat signé pendant le sommet et exige la mise en œuvre d’une série d’accords présentés au sommet de Copenhague en 2009, qui ont été intégrés dans la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) lors de la rencontre sur le climat à Cancun l’année dernière. Ces accords comprennent des initiatives pour le transfert de technologie, l’adaptation aux changements climatiques et de nouvelles règles permettant de vérifier la tenue des promesses de réduction de carbone.

L’Afrique du Sud et le Brésil – deux pays plus vulnérables aux effets néfastes du réchauffement climatique, concernant en particulier l’agriculture et la biodiversité – ont également manifesté leur intérêt pour la feuille de route.

Le ministre sud-africain de l’Environnement, Edna Molewa, a déclaré que la feuille de route de l’UE était “vue de manière favorable”, mais a indiqué que l’Afrique du Sud, comme la Chine, veut mettre des “conditionnalités” sur tous les accords contraignants.

“Nous aimerions œuvrer pour une issue juridiquement contraignante. En tant qu’Afrique du Sud, nous pensons que le sérieux, avec lequel nous traiterons le niveau des contributions que l’Afrique du Sud peut apporter dans l’arène mondiale, est compris dans le contexte des articles 4.1 et 2 de la CCNUCC”, a confirmé Xolisa Ngwadla, le deuxième négociateur pour l’Afrique du Sud.

L’article 4.1 de la CCNUCC porte sur des “responsabilités communes et différenciées”, selon le produit intérieur brut de chaque pays, tandis que l’article 2 se réfère à la stabilisation des émissions de gaz à effet de serre à un niveau qui permet aux écosystèmes de s’adapter naturellement aux changements climatiques, de s’assurer que la production alimentaire n’est pas menacée et de permettre au développement économique de se poursuivre de manière durable – un point important pour les pays qui ressentent fortement les effets des changements climatiques.

“Nos engagements futurs dépendront aussi du financement, des transferts de technologie et du renforcement des capacités”, a ajouté Ngwadla.

Contrairement à l’Afrique du Sud, le Brésil a déclaré qu’il ne pose aucune condition avant de s’engager à un instrument international juridiquement contraignant visant à réduire les émissions de carbone tant qu’un tel traité permet de lutter contre les changements climatiques sur la base des études scientifiques.

“Nous pourrions nous accorder dès aujourd’hui sur un instrument international juridiquement contraignant, mais pas sur n’importe lequel. Il doit être solide, répondre à ce que la science juge nécessaire pour nous et donc quelque chose qui fera une différence dans la lutte contre les changements climatiques”, a expliqué l’ambassadeur Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, chef de la délégation brésilienne. “Nous n’adapterions pas un instrument juridiquement contraignant pour la forme”.

Actuellement, le Brésil a défini des objectifs volontaires de réduction de carbone, qui ont été promulgués comme loi nationale. Figueiredo a affirmé qu’il est conscient que cet engagement devra augmenter au fil du temps.

“Nous comprenons que ce régime devra évoluer avec le temps. Nous pensons que les actions volontaires seules ne signifient généralement pas un niveau de réponse internationale que la science juge nécessaire pour nous. Nous sommes prêts à jouer notre rôle dans l’évolution future de la lutte internationale contre les changements climatiques”, a-t-il ajouté. (FIN/11)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 7 déc (IPS) – Talata Nsor, une femme de 54 ans originaire de la communauté des Bolgatanga, dans le nord du Ghana, en Afrique de l’ouest, tisse, toute sa vie durant, des bolga – des paniers culturels qui tirent leur nom de celui de sa communauté.

Cela a été une entreprise réussie pour elle, et elle a même pu mettre ses enfants à l’école grâce aux bénéfices de ses ventes.

Toutefois, elle s’inquiète du fait que bientôt sa communauté peut ne plus être en mesure de continuer à fabriquer ces paniers, qui sont célèbres dans toute la région d’Afrique de l’ouest, avec un marché en Europe et en Amérique.

C’est parce que la matière première utilisée pour fabriquer ces paniers, communément appelée herbe à éléphant ou ‘Veta vera’ comme on l’appelle scientifiquement, est en voie de disparition à cause de ce que Nsor qualifie de conditions climatiques changeantes.

“Il y a juste 10 ans, je marchais pour me rendre dans n’importe quel marécage proche dans le nord du Ghana et récoltais l’herbe gratuitement. Mais aujourd’hui, je dois aller très loin, ou me rendre à Kumasi, à environ 400 kilomètres, afin d’acheter cette matière première”, a déclaré Nsor.

L’herbe à éléphant ne peut pousser que dans les marécages. Mais selon des experts de la région, les gens sont en train de convertir les marécages en des terres agricoles comme un moyen pour faire face au manque de pluie et à l’insécurité alimentaire croissante.

“Les gens préfèrent transformer les marécages en zones horticoles parce que l’agriculture pluviale ne marche pas. La pluviométrie n’est plus fiable, et les gens ont besoin de cultiver dans les endroits où ils sont assurés d’avoir de l’eau pour l’irrigation”, a expliqué Nafisatu Yussif, chargée de programmes à ABANTU, une organisation qui engage des politiques à partir d’une perspective de genre en Afrique.

Elle est l’une des nombreuses femmes qui représentent leurs communautés à travers le monde et qui sont venues assister aux négociations des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques, en cours à Durban, en Afrique du Sud, afin de faire entendre leur voix.

“Nous accueillons différentes femmes venues d’horizons divers”, a déclaré Samantha Hargreaves de ‘ActionAid International’, l’un des organisateurs de l’Assemblée des femmes rurales, qui se déroule en même temps que la 17ème Conférence des parties.

“Plus de 500 femmes dans ce forum se partagent les expériences de différents pays, suggèrent la voie à suivre, et exposent leurs meilleures pratiques. Les conclusions de l’assemblée seront présentées au Groupe africain de négociateurs comme une position commune des femmes des pays pauvres du monde”, a indiqué Hargreaves.

Toutefois, selon des participantes à l’assemblée, les femmes des pays pauvres vivent des situations difficiles qui sont presque similaires.

“Dans mon pays, les femmes travaillent dur dans les fermes, mais quand arrive la récolte, les hommes prennent la responsabilité de collecter l’argent. Je viens d’apprendre que la situation est la même en Afrique et dans d’autres pays asiatiques”, a déclaré María Estela Jocón González, qui représente les femmes rurales de trois régions rurales au Guatemala.

Les régions de l’ouest, du sud et du nord du Guatemala sont des zones en proie aux inondations, une situation qui s’est aggravée au cours de ces dernières années, a souligné González.

“Quand les inondations surviennent, les puits sont remplis d’eau sale. Pourtant, selon notre culture, c’est de la seule responsabilité de la femme de s’assurer que la famille dispose de suffisamment d’eau pour la boisson et d’autres usages domestiques”, a-t-elle indiqué à IPS.

Elle demande à la communauté internationale, qui se réunit à Durban, de s’assurer que des systèmes soient mis en place pour maîtriser les inondations en augmentation.

“Je veux entendre parler d’engagements pour que les pays réduisent les émissions de gaz responsables du réchauffement de la planète. C’est bon de penser au développement, mais le développement sans un environnement sain est inutile”, a-t-elle expliqué.

Tandis qu’il y a des inondations au Guatemala, le sud du Sénégal connaît un manque de précipitations. Faty Khody, originaire de Kaolack, une communauté rurale dans la partie méridionale du Sénégal, a déclaré à IPS que la pluviométrie dans la région a chuté d’une moyenne de 900 millimètres en 2001 à entre 300 et 400 millimètres actuellement.

“Nous avions l’habitude de cultiver des légumes et de les vendre sur le marché local. Mais actuellement, ce n’est pas possible sauf si cela est fait grâce à l’irrigation”, a indiqué Khody, qui travaille comme chargée de promotion pour ‘Interpench’, une organisation communautaire qui regroupe plus de 7.700 femmes des zones rurales du Sénégal.

“Les pluviométries ont changé, les sécheresses sont devenues extrêmes, et quand il pleut, il en résulte des inondations, qui font souvent souffrir la population rurale, en particulier les femmes et les enfants”.

Avec l’appui de l’organisation non gouvernementale ‘Horizon 3000′, ‘Interpench’ a lancé un projet appelé “Une femme, un arbre fruitier” comme un moyen de s’adapter aux changements climatiques.

“Nous disons un arbre parce que c’est le premier pas. Le jeune plant du seul arbre est donné gratuitement, et il prend le nom de la personne qui le plante comme un souvenir. Cependant, il est censé être une motivation pour les femmes à participer largement non seulement à la plantation d’arbres, mais aussi à la plantation d’arbres fruitiers”, a expliqué Khody.

“Nous espérons que les réflexions à la COP 17 aboutiront à des idées qui appuieront de telles initiatives d’adaptation aux changements climatiques dirigées par les femmes”, a déclaré Hargreaves.

Toutefois, elle insiste que pour que de tels projets réussissent, ils doivent être basés sur des systèmes de connaissances indigènes.

“Le Groupe africain de négociateurs ne doit pas céder à la pression des pays développés à la COP 17,” a-t-elle ajouté. (FIN/11)

Busani Bafana

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 7 déc (IPS) – Effatah Jele, une productrice de lait en Zambie, en Afrique australe, ne croit pas en un hasard agricole, mais au pragmatisme à cause des changements climatiques.

“On devrait enseigner aux fermiers les bonnes pratiques agricoles au lieu d’imputer tout aux changements climatiques”, a déclaré Jele, qui dirige une ferme laitière dans la province de Luanshya Cooperbelt, en Zambie, et est la vice-présidente de la ‘Dairy Association’ (Association des producteurs de lait).

“Les changements sont là, sans doute, mais il est également important pour les agriculteurs de disposer des bonnes pratiques agricoles pour résister à ces changements. Par exemple, certaines femmes produisent des légumes et, à cause de l’ignorance, creusent le sol jusqu’au bord du fleuve. Ensuite, quand il pleut, tout le sable est entraîné dans le fleuve et après quelques années, le flot devient peu profond. Et certaines personnes affirment que c’est à cause des changements climatiques”.

Jele a indiqué que les changements dans les conditions météorologiques présentent de graves implications pour des fermiers, comme elle, qui dépendent des ressources en eau de plus en plus rares pour garder un troupeau laitier viable. Les producteurs de cultures, a-t-elle dit, sont moins bien lotis, sauf si la science et des idées pratiques viennent au secours.

“Je pense que nos scientifiques devraient aller vers les agriculteurs pour leur parler et leur faire comprendre la différence entre les changements climatiques et les problèmes auto-infligés à travers l’utilisation des mauvaises méthodes agricoles. Cela est important, parce que, autrement, nous ne trouverons pas des solutions qui assureront la sécurité alimentaire”, a déclaré Jele.

“Certaines des choses que nous imputons aux changements climatiques relèvent de l’incapacité de notre part, en tant que fermiers, à faire la bonne chose au bon moment. Parce qu’il y a une chanson sur les changements climatiques; nous chantons tous ‘changements climatiques, changements climatiques’”, a affirmé Jele.

Les craintes par rapport aux effets des changements climatiques sur l’agriculture africaine sont réelles et en Afrique australe, les fermiers sont en train de prendre des mesures pour s’assurer que les négociateurs à la 17ème Conférence des parties (COP 17) à Durban comprennent le message.

La ‘Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions’ (Confédération des syndicats agricoles d’Afrique australe – SACAU) – qui a obtenu le statut d’observateur à la session de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) – veut que les négociations mondiales mettent fermement l’agriculture sur l’agenda des changements climatiques et établissent un programme de travail qui présentera et coordonnera des réponses nécessaires, telles qu’une allocation spécifique au secteur dans le cadre du Fonds vert pour le climat.

Des initiatives intelligentes face au climat, telles que l’agriculture de conservation, la récolte de l’eau, permettront non seulement aux fermiers de faire face aux conditions météorologiques extrêmes, mais aussi de s’assurer qu’ils réduisent les émissions de carbone. Selon des scientifiques, l’agriculture est responsable de 15 à 30 pour cent des émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre, telles que le dioxyde de carbone, qui influence la température de la terre.

Les agriculteurs font campagne pour un accord qui comprend spécifiquement l’agriculture, qui sera fortement touchée par les changements climatiques en termes de baisse de rendements agricoles et de la faiblesse de la productivité. Pour eux, les termes ‘productif’, ‘durable’ et ‘fermes’ constituent l’assurance contre les risques des changements climatiques.

Notant les liens étroits qui existent entre les défis de la lutte contre les changements climatiques et le fait de nourrir une population mondiale croissante, Kanayo Nwanze, le président du Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA), doit demander à la COP 17 de se concentrer sur l’aide à accorder à un demi-milliard de petits fermiers dans les pays en développement pour qu’ils produisent plus de nourriture d’une façon écologiquement durable.

Selon une étude menée par le Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale, les changements climatiques feront baisser la productivité agricole, avec des projections d’une hausse des températures et d’une augmentation des sécheresses et des inondations, qui changeraient les saisons agricoles et entraîneraient une baisse des récoltes.

“Nos attentes en tant que fermiers d’Afrique australe, c’est que l’agriculture soit incluse dans le texte qui sera adopté à la fin de la COP 17 à Durban”, a souligné Stéphanie Aubin, chargée du développement des politiques à la SACAU.

“L’agriculture doit être incluse dans le texte spécifique afin qu’il existe un fonds particulier et une action spécifique qui soient mis en œuvre”.

Un projet de texte a été discuté et négocié au cours des réunions des COP passées, à Copenhague et à Cancun, mais a été abandonné parce que l’agriculture a été mise dans la même catégorie que les combustibles de soute.

“Il est important que l’agriculture bénéficie d’un traitement spécial lors des négociations de la CCNUCC parce qu’elle est spéciale en termes de moyens de subsistance pour des millions de personnes en Afrique et de sécurité alimentaire pour la planète, et c’est le secteur le plus sensible au climat qui peut en même temps contribuer aux efforts d’adaptation et d’atténuation”, a expliqué Aubin.

“Nous voulons un chapitre spécifique sur l’agriculture dans le texte et une action à long terme, puisque cela débloquera le financement dont le secteur agricole a besoin en Afrique pour répondre efficacement aux changements climatiques”.

Aubin était optimiste qu’avec la COP 17 qui est organisée actuellement en Afrique, les gouvernements africains feront l’effort nécessaire pour faire pression afin que l’agriculture soit incluse dans le texte final. (FIN/11)

Civil Society organisations are sticking to their guns: Women will be hardest hit by the climate change. Zuki Zimela reports from COP 17 in Durban.

	Delegados cruzan el puente de acceso al centro de convenciones de Durban donde se celebró la cumbre climática Crédito: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 12 dic (Tierramérica) – El mundo se encamina a un peligroso calentamiento planetario. Pero cuando la decimoséptima cumbre climática concluía en Sudáfrica este domingo 11, los gobiernos aceptaron discutir un nuevo tratado global para abatir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.

Tras dos semanas de intensas y amargas discusiones, a las que se adicionaron otras 29 horas, los 193 países partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) acordaron un complejo conjunto de documentos técnicos titulado Plataforma de Durban, por la oriental ciudad sudafricana donde se celebró la conferencia.

Los textos incluyen la continuidad del Protocolo de Kyoto, único tratado mundial obligatorio para reducir los gases invernadero, la estructura formal del Fondo Verde para el Clima y nuevos mecanismos de mercado, entre otros asuntos.

Pero el punto medular, logrado en el amanecer del domingo, fue el acuerdo de todos los gobiernos de que debe negociarse un nuevo tratado mundial para abatir las emisiones para 2015. Aunque esto pueda parecer la simple decisión de celebrar más reuniones, esta es la primera vez que todas las naciones aceptan ser gobernadas por un régimen específico en el marco de la CMNUCC.

De momento, las promesas voluntarias de recorte de emisiones formuladas en 2009 por los países industriales, China, Brasil, Sudáfrica, India y otros en el marco del Acuerdo de Copenhague, garantizan que la temperatura media del planeta se elevará 3,5 grados centígrados respecto de la era preindustrial, indica la ciencia climática.

Incluso algunos análisis afirman que la temperatura subiría más, entre cuatro y cinco grados, lo que pondría en peligro la supervivencia de la especie humana.

Pese a las declaraciones políticas de Estados Unidos, Canadá y la Unión Europea, lo cierto es que las naciones en desarrollo han prometido reducciones mayores que el mundo industrial que es responsable de 75 por ciento de todas las emisiones humanas causantes del calentamiento.

“Aún no hay nuevas promesas sobre la mesa, y lo aceptado en Durban en cuanto a elevar las ambiciones y los recortes es incierto en cuanto a su resultado”, dijo Bill Hare, director de Climate Analytics, un grupo asesor sin fines de lucro con sede en Alemania.

La presidenta de la 17 Conferencia de las Partes (COP 17) de la CMNUCC, la sudafricana Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, fue una de las rogaron a los gobiernos hacer a un lado sus intereses “por el bien superior del planeta y de sus pueblos”.

Países ricos como Estados Unidos, Canadá y Arabia Saudita bloquearon las conversaciones en muchos frentes, para frustración y amargura de los países más pequeños y desfavorecidos.

“La triste noticia es que los saboteadores conducidos por Estados Unidos se anotaron el éxito de incluir una cláusula de escape que podría impedir fácilmente que el próximo gran tratado climático sea legalmente vinculante”, dijo el director ejecutivo de Greenpeace Internacional, Kumi Naidoo.

Incluso si en 2015 se aprueba un estricto tratado legalmente vinculante, deberá ser ratificado por los gobiernos para entrar en vigor. El Protocolo de Kyoto se adoptó en 1997, pero no entró en vigor hasta 2005.

Esperar hasta 2020 para efectuar drásticas reducciones de la contaminación obligará a ir mucho más a fondo, con mayores costos, para mantener la esperanza de que la temperatura global no suba más de dos grados, dijo Hare a Tierramérica.

“La aspiración colectiva de reducción de emisiones debe elevarse muy pronto y de manera sustancial”, advirtió Alden Meyer, director de estrategia y política de la estadounidense Unión de Científicos Preocupados.

Varios estudios sostienen que las emisiones mundiales de gases invernadero deberían alcanzar su punto más alto entre 2015 y 2020 y luego declinar, si se busca una posibilidad razonable de controlar la temperatura a un costo alcanzable. Si el pico y la declinación se producen más tarde, los costos y los riesgos se dispararán.

“Los discursos contundentes y las cuidadas elecciones del lenguaje no pueden alterar las leyes de la física. La atmósfera responde solo a una cosa, las emisiones”, dijo Meyer.

Está claro que en las dos semanas pasadas los gobiernos escucharon a las corporaciones contaminantes y no a sus pueblos, sostuvo Naidoo en un comunicado.

La Plataforma de Durban incluye un segundo período de compromisos del Protocolo de Kyoto que debería comenzar en enero de 2013 para evitar una brecha tras el fin del primer plazo, en diciembre de 2012. Su duración y alcance serán discutidos en la COP 18 que se llevará a cabo en Qatar.

Los países en desarrollo insistieron en esta condición, pese a que el Protocolo solo obliga a pequeñas reducciones de los países industriales europeos, Canadá, Australia, Japón y unos pocos más.

Estados Unidos permanece fuera del Protocolo de Kyoto, y Canadá ignoró sus obligaciones y elevó las emisiones y ahora, junto con Japón y Rusia, afirma que no se sumará a un segundo período de compromisos.

La continuidad de Kyoto es “significativa”, dijo la secretaria ejecutiva de la CMNUCC, Christiana Figueres. Los países partes deben presentar sus ofertas de reducción para mayo de 2012.

Pero no hay una adopción formal del segundo período en el texto actual de los documentos, dijo Pablo Solón, exjefe de la delegación de Bolivia ante la Convención. “La decisión real se pospuso hasta la próxima COP”, y el Protocolo sigue “en terapia intensiva”, aseveró.

El único progreso del Fondo Verde para el Clima fue su diseño y administración. Se supone que debe distribuir unos 100.000 millones de dólares de asistencia a los países en desarrollo, a partir de 2020, para ayudarlos a reducir sus emisiones y adaptarse al cambio climático.

En Durban no hubo compromisos sobre el origen del dinero. Se acordó establecer un “plan de trabajo” para movilizar recursos de fuentes públicas y privadas. Estas últimas incluyen de manera explícita los mercados de carbono, pues los gobiernos del Norte industrial se escudaron en la crisis financiera y económica que les ata las manos.

La sociedad civil y algunos países en desarrollo destacaron que los gobiernos han entregado billones de dólares a bancos y entidades financieras y que el presupuesto militar mundial supera en más de 10 veces lo que necesita el Fondo Verde para el Clima.

Pese a que el mercado de carbono está en caída, el sector privado es considerado por Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea, Nueva Zelanda y Japón, entre otros, como socio clave para financiar la respuesta al cambio climático.

Los mercados de compra y venta de compensaciones de carbono son un sistema muy polémico y complejo en cuanto a mediciones y propiedad del carbono en el suelo o los bosques, entre otros aspectos. También subsiste el cuestionamiento ético de que los países ricos compensen su propia contaminación comprando bosques o tierras en naciones pobres.

“Mantengan las metas, dejen los mercados”, reclamó Oscar Reyes, de Amigos de la Tierra Gran Bretaña en los últimos días de la COP 17. “Nos preocupa que cuando el Fondo Verde tenga recursos se los prestará al sector privado para impulsar el mercado de carbono”, dijo Reyes a Tierramérica.

“Al mirar las pasadas conferencias, parece más efectivo que sus miembros salgan fuera de los recintos y planten árboles durante dos semanas. Probablemente lograrían más impacto”, dijo el joven de 14 años Felix Finkbeiner, de Alemania.

Finkbeiner lanzó una organización infantil llamada Planta para el Planeta que ahora trabaja en 70 países y ha cultivado casi cuatro millones de árboles en los últimos cuatro años. Su lema es “Basta de hablar, empieza a plantar”.

* Publicado por la red latinoamericana de diarios de Tierramérica. (FIN)

As the United Nations climate negotiations ended with the world’s nations still to agree on a new global treaty to reduce carbon emissions, others urge: "Stop Talking. Start Planting." Credit: Tinus de Jager/IPS

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 11 (IPS) – The world is increasingly committed to dangerous levels of global warming with yet another failure by nations of the world to agree to needed reductions in carbon emissions here in Durban. However, as the 17th Conference of Parties ended early Sunday morning, members did agree to talk about a new global treaty to reduce emissions.

After two weeks and an additional 29 hours of intense and even bitter negotiations, the 193 nations participating in the United Nations climate talks agreed to a complex and technical set of documents called the “Durban Platform.” These include the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, a formal structure for a Green Climate Fund, new market mechanisms, and more.

The biggest development reached at dawn Sunday is an agreement to negotiate a new global treaty to reduce emissions by 2015. While this may look like simply agreeing to more meetings, it is the first time all nations have agreed to be governed by a new global emission reduction treaty under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Currently the promised emission reductions by industrialised countries and those of China, Brazil, South Africa, India and others under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord guarantee a world that is at least 3.5 degrees Celsius warmer on average according to climate science. It will be double that over large parts of the world. Some analysis says this global average could be even higher rising to four or five degrees Celsius threatening our species with annihilation.

Despite the political posturing by the United States, Canada and even the European Union, the fact is that developing countries’ promised reductions are greater than the industrialised world that are responsible for 75 percent of the total human emissions in the atmosphere.

“There are still no new pledges on the table and the process agreed in Durban towards raising the ambition and increasing emission reductions is uncertain in its outcome,” said Bill Hare, Director of Climate Analytics, a non-profit climate science advisory group based in Germany.

COP 17 President, South Africa’s Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and others pleaded with countries to put their self-interest aside “for the greater good of the planet and its people.” Rich countries like the U.S., Canada and Saudi Arabia blocked progress and numerous fronts leaving smaller nations bitter and frustrated.

“The grim news is that the blockers lead by the U.S. have succeeded in inserting a vital get-out clause that could easily prevent the next big climate deal being legally binding,” said Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Director.

Even if a strong legally binding treaty is agreed to in 2015, it will have to ratified by governments before going into force. It took several years to ratify the Kyoto Protocol that the U.S. backed and then failed to ratify following the election of George W Bush.

Waiting until 2020 to make major cuts means those cuts will have to be far deeper and far more costly to have any hope of keeping temperatures below two degrees Celsius, Hare previously told IPS.

“The world’s collective level of ambition on emissions reductions must be substantially increased, and soon,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Various analysis show that global emissions should peak between 2015 and 2020 to earn a reasonable chance of less than two degrees Celsius at doable cost. If the peak and decline comes later costs and risks of exceeding two degrees Celsius skyrocket.

“Powerful speeches and carefully worded decisions can’t amend the laws of physics. The atmosphere responds to one thing, and one thing only – emissions,” said Meyer.

It was clear that our governments these past two weeks listened to the carbon-intensive polluting corporations instead of listening to the people, Naidoo said in a statement.

The “Durban Platform” includes a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol that will begin January 2013, avoiding a gap at the end of the first commitment period finishing next year. The length of the second commitment period is to be decided at COP 18 in Qatar.

Developing countries insisted on this condition because Kyoto is the only legally binding emissions reduction agreement. However, it only asked for small reductions from industrialised countries like those in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and a few others. The U.S. opted out and Canada ignored its obligations and increased emissions 24 percent. And now Canada, Japan and Russia have said they will take not take part in the second commitment period.

The continuation of Kyoto “is highly significant” said Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary. Participating countries are to submit their emission reduction offers by May 2012.

There is no formal adoption of a second commitment period based on the actual wording of the documents, said Pablo Solón, former lead negotiator for the Plurinational State of Bolivia. “The actual decision has merely been postponed to the next COP.” Kyoto remains on “life support” he said.

The only progress on the Green Climate Fund (GFC) was on its design and governance. The GFC is supposed to funnel 100 billion dollars in assistance annually starting in 2020 to help developing nations to reduce emissions and help them adapt to climate change. There were no commitments on where the money would come from. What was agreed is to set up a “work plan” to mobilise significant climate funds from both private and public sources.

Private sources explicitly include carbon markets as governments from the rich countries frequently cited the financial crisis has tied their purse strings. Civil society and some developing nations noted that governments have made trillions of dollars available for the bank and financial sector and that world’s military budget is more than 10 times what is needed for the GFC.

Even though the carbon market has crashed the private sector is considered by the U.S., EU, New Zealand, Japan and other countries to be a key partner in mobilising money for climate change. Creating private markets for the buying and selling carbon offsets remains highly controversial and very complex in terms measurement, ownership carbon in soil or forests and more. Then there the ethics of rich countries offsetting their own emissions by buying up forests or land in poor countries.

“Keep the targets lose the markets” Oscar Reyes of the Friends of the Earth UK urged negotiators in in the final days of COP 17. “We’re worried that when the GCF has money it will lend it to the private sector to drive carbon markets,” Reyes told IPS.

“Durban is a disaster” for a fair and functional Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme said experts with Ecosystems Climate Alliance, a coalition of forest NGOs. REDD is by far the biggest potential carbon market.

“From looking at past conferences (climate COPs) it would be more effective if members of the conference would come outside and plant trees for the two weeks. They’d probably make a bigger impact,” said 14-year-old Felix Finkbeiner of Munich, Germany. Finkbeiner launched an organizaton of children called Plant for the Planet that is now working in 70 countries and have planted nearly four million trees in past four years.

Their motto: “Stop Talking. Start Planting.”

(END/2011)

La comunidad de Olonana Ole Pulei es una tribu de la etnia maasai de Kenia. Crédito: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Por Isaiah Esipisu*

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 9 dic (IPS)  Para la comunidad laibon, una tribu de la etnia maasai de Kenia, el bosque Loita, de 33.000 hectáreas, es un santuario.

“Nuestros dioses viven aquí. Juntamos hierbas de este lugar. Lo usamos para criar abejas. Por lo tanto forma parte de nuestro medio de vida”, dijo Olonana Ole Pulei sobre ese bosque ubicado en la occidental provincia keniata del Valle del Rift.

Ole Pulei estuvo en Durban, Sudáfrica, para representar a su comunidad en la 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17).

Según Nigel Crawhall, del Comité Coordinador de los Pueblos Indígenas de África (IPACC, por sus siglas en inglés), diferentes comunidades africanas poseen increíbles conocimientos indígenas que usan en la conservación de los bosques y la biodiversidad en general, y esto debería reconocerse en las negociaciones climáticas.

Crawhall puso como ejemplo a las comunidades de pigmeos bambuti y batwa, en el oriente de la República Democrática del Congo, que conservan los bosques utilizando métodos tradicionales. Ambos grupos dependen de la biodiversidad animal de los bosques ecuatoriales para sobrevivir.

“Por lo general saben identificar árboles que pueden talarse para crear una apertura única en la bóveda (forestal), lo que permite entrar la luz en los cerrados bosques del Congo. Luego la luz atrae a pájaros e insectos que ellos pueden cazar”, dijo Crawhall a IPS.

Esto ayuda a conservar la biodiversidad y, en particular, los bosques, porque este método solamente puede funcionar si la bóveda forestal está intacta.

En Kenia, la cultura maasai prohibe a los miembros de la comunidad talar árboles, ya sea para obtener leña o con cualquier otro fin. También está prohibido interferir con las raíces principales o eliminar toda la corteza de un árbol para extraer sustancias herbáceas.

Sus creencias indican que solo se pueden usar las ramas para hacer leña, y las raíces fibrosas como hierbas. Si la corteza del árbol tiene valor medicinal, solamente se puede aprovechar porciones pequeñas, tallando una “V” sobre ella. Luego ese corte se sella usando tierra húmeda.

Esta práctica se ha transmitido de generación en generación en la comunidad maasai. Entre los laibons, son los conocimientos indígenas los que han ayudado a conservar el bosque Loita.

Los miembros de la comunidad consideran que talar un árbol es atentar contra los dioses y contra su cultura.

Si bien todos los africanos son nativos de su continente, Crawhall señala que los grupos que conservan la definición de indígenas son aquellos que viven de la caza y la recolección, mientras otros practican la ganadería pastoril o la agricultura de secano.

Pese a que no hay una definición estándar sobre estas poblaciones, la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (2007) reconoce que comunidades particulares, debido a circunstancias históricas y ambientales, se han encontrado fuera del sistema estatal y han quedado poco representadas en materia de gobernanza.

“Los bosquimanos de África austral, o la comunidad ogiek de Kenia, que viven en los bosques, son ejemplos típicos de grupos categorizados como indígenas”, dijo Crawhall.

África tiene más de 40 pueblos que sobreviven completamente gracias a la caza y la recolección, señaló.

IPACC trabaja estrechamente con 155 comunidades de 22 países africanos que se reconocen como originarias a causa de sus circunstancias históricas y ambientales.

En consecuencia, representantes de estas comunidades se han unido al resto del mundo en Durban para hacer oír sus voces, a fin de que sus aportes a la conservación forestal se reconozcan como parte de los esfuerzos de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático.

“Creemos que los conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales africanos son el cimiento de políticas nacionales de adaptación adecuadas y efectivas”, dijo Crawhall.

A través de la secretaría de IPACC, las 155 organizaciones comunitarias existentes en África redactaron un borrador con su posición para la plataforma de negociación. Reclamaron que los negociadores representen a todas las partes africanas: organizaciones indígenas, autoridades y sistemas de valores tradicionales.

Exigen la formación de una entidad regional legalmente vinculante en el marco de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para manejar asuntos de conservación que son difíciles de tratar en el ámbito nacional.

“Una de las brechas dominantes en la mayoría de los países miembro de IPACC es que no hay (derechos reconocidos sobre la) tenencia de la tierra para las comunidades que viven en los bosques o dependen de ellos”, dijo Crawhall.

Sin embargo, varios países liderados por Kenia han empezado a responder a las necesidades de sus comunidades locales incluyéndolas en sus estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático.

Kenia está en proceso de redactar un proyecto de ley de adaptación al cambio climático. Y las comunidades indígenas aportarán su perspectiva en ese texto porque, según la Constitución, se las debe consultar al elaborar iniciativas legislativas.

“Atravesamos todo el país buscando opiniones sobre este proyecto. (…) Nuestra visión es participar y liderar en el desarrollo y la implementación de políticas sensibles al cambio climático, así como proyectos y actividades dentro y fuera de nuestras fronteras”, dijo John Kioli, presidente del Grupo de Trabajo de Kenia sobre Cambio Climático, presente en Durban.

* Este artículo es parte de una serie apoyada por la Alianza Clima y Desarrollo (CDKN).

Durban leading the African response to climate change? Credit: IPS Africa

By Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9, 2011 (IPS) No one is happy late Friday at the very contentious U.N. climate talks that went into extra time on Saturday. As the lights flicker on a rainy night here, the partial power failure echoes the failure of the multilateral process, according to civil society and some countries.

“If countries agree to the text as it stands, they will be passing a death sentence on Africa,” said Nigerian activist Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.

And yet African countries and other vulnerable countries might go along because they will be bullied or bribed, said Bassey.

When Bolivia stood up to the United States at the Copenhagen climate meet in December 2009, Washington pulled its development aid the next year.

“Delegates must show that they care about the devastation across the continent and small island states …. or are they going to yield to arm twisting because a few dollars are being hoisted about,” Bassey said.

So far African countries are not blocking an agreement at the 17th United Nations climate change summit, he told IPS.

Thursday night, a select group of ministers and senior delegates from 28 countries met until four a.m. to work on the key components, but failed to reach a consensus. The following day, when all countries began to review the details, wide disagreements arose over many of the same issues.

“Countries won’t agree to a second period of the Kyoto Protocol until the next COP (conference of parties),” said Pablo Solón, former U.N. ambassador from the Plurinational State of Bolivia and former chief negotiator at the Cancun COP 16, the last meeting prior to Durban.

“Kyoto Protocol will lose its heart…it will become a zombie,” said Solon, who had seen the confidential details that weren’t released publicly until late Friday night.

Countries will “only take note” of the science-based need to increase their emission commitments well before 2020. In addition, the key phrase “legally binding agreement” that nearly every country wanted is absent, he said.

“The U.S. is the big winner here…This will lead us to a future with more than four degrees of warming,” Solon warned.

This COP is a” disastrous failure”, said Praful Bidwai, former IPS correspondent and a political columnist and social scientist from India who has just published a book on the politics of climate change. It would be far better for the talks to collapse than to cobble together a “greenwash deal” that pretends to be addressing the climate crisis, he added.

“The U.S. can’t be trusted at these talks. They will never agree to anything legally binding,” Bidwai told IPS.

The U.S. was the chief architect of the Kyoto Protocol during climate talks in the early 1990s, but never ratified the treaty even though it only called for emission reductions of five percent by 2012. At the same time, Canada supported and ratified Kyoto but did nothing to comply, so its emissions soared 24 to 28 percent during the intervening years.

Europe is little better, even though its emissions appear have gone down more than 15 percent. Much of that is due to the collapse of the Eastern European bloc during the 1990s, and the shift to importing its goods from elsewhere and thus avoiding emissions. Spain, Italy, France and others have had major increases, Bidwai said.

“It could all fall apart. Many low-income developing countries are very angry,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

These are the world’s poorest countries, like Mali and small Pacific islands.

At Durban, Canada and the U.S. were awarded the “Colossal Fossil” prize by civil society for doing the most to block progress on a new climate agreement. (END)

¿Durban conduce la respuesta africana al cambio climático? Crédito: IPS Africa

Por Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 9 dic (IPS) Nadie estaba feliz al anochecer de este viernes 9 en las peleadas negociaciones climáticas de la ONU, que entraron en alargue hasta este sábado. Mientras las luces parpadeaban en la noche lluviosa de la ciudad sudafricana de Durban, el fallo eléctrico recordaba el fracaso del proceso multilateral.

“Si los países aceptan el texto negociado tal como está, será como una sentencia de muerte para África”, profirió el presidente de Amigos de la Tierra Internacional, el nigeriano Nnimmo Bassey. Pero los africanos y otros países vulnerables podrían ceder porque serán presionados y extorsionados, agregó.

Cuando Bolivia se puso de pie y resistió las presiones de Estados Unidos en la 15 Conferencia de las Partes (COP 15) de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, celebrada en 2009 en Copenhague, Washington le retiró al año siguiente toda su ayuda al desarrollo.

“Los delegados deben demostrar que les preocupa la devastación de todo el continente (africano) y de los pequeños estados insulares… o se van a dejar torcer el brazo por unos pocos dólares”, cuestionó.

Hasta ahora, los países africanos no están bloqueando la posibilidad de llegar a un acuerdo, dijo Bassey a IPS.

El jueves por la noche, un grupo selecto de ministros y altos representantes de 28 países se reunieron hasta las cuatro de la madrugada de este viernes para trabajar en aspectos clave, pero sin llegar a un acuerdo total.

Este viernes, a medida que todos los países revisaban los detalles discutidos emergieron grandes diferencias respecto de muchas de las mismas cuestiones.

“Los países no van a acordar un segundo período de compromisos del Protocolo de Kyoto hasta la próxima COP, que se celebrará a fines de 2012 en Qatar, dijo a IPS el exembajador de Bolivia ante la ONU (Organización de las Naciones Unidas), Pablo Solón, quien encabezó la delegación de su país en la COP 16 de 2010 en Cancún, México.

El Protocolo de Kyoto, único tratado obligatorio para reducir la contaminación climática que expirará en 2012, “perderá su alma…, se convertirá en zombi”, dijo Solón, que había visto los puntos confidenciales discutidos por los delegados y que no fueron publicados hasta bien entrada la noche sudafricana.

Los gobiernos “solo tomarán nota” de la necesidad establecida por la ciencia de que se adopten compromisos mayores para abatir los gases que recalientan la atmósfera mucho antes de 2020. Además, la expresión “legalmente vinculante” que querían casi todos los países, está ausente, dijo Solón.

“Estados Unidos es el gran ganador… Esto nos llevará a un futuro con más de cuatro grados centígrados” de aumento de la temperatura mundial, añadió.

Esta 17 Conferencia de las Partes (COP 17) es un “desastroso fracaso”, dijo a IPS el indio Praful Bidwai, excorresponsal de esta agencia, columnista y sociólogo.

Sería mejor que las conversaciones colapsaran en lugar de redactar a las apuradas un “pacto de lavada de cara” con pretensiones de encarar la crisis, añadió Bidwai, que acaba de publicar un libro sobre la política del cambio climático.

“No se puede confiar en Estados Unidos en estas negociaciones. Nunca aceptará nada que sea legalmente vinculante”, sostuvo.

Washington fue uno de los principales arquitectos del Protocolo de Kyoto a inicios de la década de 1990, pero nunca lo ratificó pese a que el tratado solo exigía una reducción de emisiones de gases invernadero a volúmenes cinco por ciento inferiores a los de 1990 con plazo en 2012.

Canadá apoyo y ratificó el Protocolo, pero no hizo nada para honrarlo, y sus emisiones crecieron entre 24 y 28 por ciento.

La Unión Europea está apenas mejor, si bien parece que sus emisiones cayeron más de 15 por ciento. Gran parte de esa disminución obedece al colapso económico de Europa oriental en la década de 1990 y a una creciente importación de productos que le permitió evitar una parte de la contaminación doméstica.

España, Francia e Italia y otras grandes economías industriales registraron importantes aumentos de gases invernadero.

“Se podría desmoronar todo. Muchos países de bajos ingresos están furiosos”, dijo Alden Meyer, director de estrategia y política de la Unión de Científicos Preocupados de Estados Unidos en referencia a algunas de las naciones más pobres del mundo, como Mali y los pequeños estados insulares que desaparecerían por la elevación del nivel del mar.

Canadá y Estados Unidos se hicieron, una vez más, merecedores del Fósil Colosal, un premio que entrega en cada COP la sociedad civil a aquellos estados que más obstaculizan el camino para alcanzar un régimen climático internacional. (FIN)

Complejo de almacenaje de granos y oleaginosas en Mato Grosso. La agroindustria es clave en la promesa de Brasil de reducir sus emisiones de gases contaminantes. Crédito: Mario Osava/IPS

Por Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, dic (IPS) – Brasil pretende cumplir sus metas climáticas en el sector agrícola estimulando algunas técnicas ya conocidas, que reducen las emisiones de gas carbónico, pero que pueden incrementar el uso de agrotóxicos, según activistas.

La siembra directa, recuperación de pastizales, integración cultivos-ganadería-bosque, fijación biológica de nitrógeno, reforestación comercial y el aprovechamiento de residuos animales para producir biogás son las prácticas fomentadas por una línea de crédito blando, disponible desde agosto.

El Programa Agricultura de Bajo Carbono (ABC), adoptado por el gobierno, prevé eliminar de 142 a 173 millones de toneladas del gas carbónico que la agricultura liberaría hacia 2020.

Brasil asumió en 2009 en Copenhague, ante la 15 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, el compromiso voluntario de reducir entre 36,1 y 38,9 por ciento del dióxido de carbono que lanzaría a la atmósfera en 2020 si no adoptase iniciativas mitigadoras.

Eso significa evitar la emisión de entre 1.168 y 1.259 millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono equivalente, dependiendo del crecimiento que logre de su economía.

El mayor aporte a esa meta será reducir la deforestación. La Política Nacional sobre Cambio Climático, fijada en ley de diciembre de 2009, obliga a reducir 80 por ciento los índices de deforestación amazónica, hasta 2020, en comparación con el promedio de 1996 a 2005.

La agricultura cumplirá su parte con avances en las seis buenas prácticas fomentadas por una línea de crédito de 3.150 millones de reales (1.750 millones de dólares), con “tres ventajas” en sus préstamos, aseguró Carlos Magno Brandão, director de Sistema de Producción y Sustentabilidad del Ministerio de Agricultura.

La tasa de interés de 5,5 por ciento al año, inferior a la inflación actual, un plazo máximo de 15 años y hasta ocho años de gracia son las condiciones ofrecidas para intensificar las medidas, especialmente la recuperación de 15 millones de pastizales degradados en 10 años, que responde por 60 por ciento de la meta agrícola, destacó Brandão a IPS.

La siembra directa ya se diseminó por Brasil en las últimas décadas, alcanzando a casi 25 millones de hectáreas, cerca de la mitad del área sembrada de granos en el país, estimó Brandão. La propuesta es ampliarla en ocho millones de hectáreas hasta 2020.

Pero esa práctica los grandes productores agrícolas aumentan el uso de agrotóxicos, empleados para desecar y tumbar los restos de la siembra anterior y también para combatir los hongos, favorecidos por el aumento de la temperatura y de la humedad del suelo cubierto de paja, señaló el ingeniero forestal Luiz Zarref.

Los agrotóxicos liberan gases de impacto mucho más intenso que el dióxido de carbono (CO2) en relación al clima, como el óxido nitroso (NO3), 300 veces más potente, observó Zarref, activista de la red internacional no gubernamental Via Campesina.

Además, el ABC fomentará el empleo de fertilizantes químicos compuestos de nitrógeno, también fuente de óxido nitroso y de otros gases como los derivados del petróleo, acotó a IPS.

El programa neutraliza parte de ese aumento, al incentivar la fijación biológica de nitrógeno, una tecnología desarrollada por la Empresa Brasileña de Investigación Agropecuaria (Embrapa) que ahorra gran volumen de ese fertilizante, con el uso de bacterias que lo captan del aire y lo fijan en las plantas, especialmente en la soja.

Pero aparte de la soja, esa tecnología todavía es solo “una promesa”, ya que afronta dificultades para extenderse a otras siembras, según Jean Marc von der Weid, fundador y dirigente de Asesoría y Servicios a Proyectos de Tecnología Alternativa (ASPTA), organización no gubernamental de apoyo a agricultura familiar y agroecología.

En su opinión, solo el crédito barato y con montos pequeños no permite superar la “complejidad” y las trabas a una expansión de la siembra directa, la recuperación de tierras degradadas y la integración cultivo-ganadería-bosques.

Los activistas critican la ausencia de la agroecología en el programa gubernamental. Pero se trata de “una opción compleja que depende de desconcentrar la tierra, diversificar la producción y evitar insumos químico-industriales”, ajena al espíritu del ABC pensado para “latifundios y monocultivos”, sentenció Zarref.

Brandão, por el contrario, considera que el programa se dirige a agricultores de pequeña y mediana escala, limitando al máximo de un millón de reales (550.000 dólares) cada préstamo, para “socializar” los recursos disponibles. “Los grandes (empresarios) tienen otras fuentes de crédito”, arguyó.

Mas allá del programa ABC, la crisis climática abre “nuevas oportunidades” para la agricultura y la investigación sectorial en Brasil, evaluó el jefe del Centro de Medio Ambiente de Embrapa, Celso Manzatto.

Se trata de desarrollar una “agricultura verde”, que comprende, por ejemplo, “fertilizantes inteligentes”, de liberación lenta y menos volátil, por lo tanto más eficientes y de pérdidas reducidas. También incluye el pago de servicios ambientales a agricultores que, además de producir alimentos, fibras y energía, conservan recursos naturales.

El aumento de la productividad es una forma de mitigar el recalentamiento global, y en la actividad agropecuaria hay un espacio enorme para ese avance, destacó Manzatto, quien hace 16 años que es investigador de Embrapa, el organismo estatal que tuvo un papel decisivo en la conversión de Brasil en potencia agrícola tropical.

Hay muchos lugares en Brasil donde la ganadería extensiva mantiene en promedio un animal cada dos hectáreas, ante lo cual es fácil duplicar la productividad, con resultados importantes en los factores climáticos, como es evitar la deforestación cuando se amplía la tenencia de vacunos, destacó.

El programa ABC exige un gran esfuerzo de transferencia de tecnología especialmente a los pequeños agricultores, anteriormente “marginado” de los avances logrados incluso por Embrapa, admitió.

La adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático también abre grandes oportunidades a Brasil, por haber vencido el desafío “casi imposible” de desarrollar en las zonas tropicales una agricultura competitiva ante los grandes productores de clima templado, concluyó.

El compromiso brasileño de reducir sus emisiones de carbono se planteó para contribuir a un acuerdo mundial que permita evitar que la temperatura promedio del planeta aumente más de dos grados en este siglo. Fue una oferta voluntaria, de un país hasta ahora no obligado a ese esfuerzo por no pertenecer al mundo industrializado.

La reducción de la deforestación amazónica en los últimos años fortalece la imagen brasileña en esas negociaciones. En cambio, las críticas de ambientalistas proliferan ante los cambios en el Código Forestal que estudia el parlamento y que, en caso de ser aprobados, flexibilizará las reglas y penalizaciones a los terratenientes que destruyen bosques.

WWF climate scientist Regine Günther. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

Kristin Palitza spoke to REGINE GÜNTHER, climate protection and energy policy chief at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), about the dangers climate change poses to security and livelihoods.

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) - Despite the high risk, it remains difficult to convince politicians to take immediate action to prevent further climate change and make available the necessary funds to do so. Scientists have warned repeatedly of the effects of climate change: If governments will not act fast, they will cause an irreversible catastrophe.

IPS spoke to Regine Günther, climate protection and energy policy chief at the World Wide Fund for Nature, about the dangers climate change poses to security and livelihoods.

Q: What are the consequences if the 17th United Nations climate change summit in Durban ends without firm results and targets?

A: There are several scenarios. If countries stick to the voluntary commitments to reduce carbon emissions they have made during the last two summits in Cancun and Copenhagen, we will see an increase in average temperatures by between three and four degrees Celsius. If they manage to start a process in Durban that will lead to higher emission reduction targets by 2020, we could succeed in not going above a two degree Celsius rise.

But at the moment, it doesn’t look good. If we continue like before and don’t even implement the voluntary pledges, we will reach a dangerous temperature rise of six or seven degree Celsius.

Q: What happens if average temperatures increase by more than two degrees Celsius?

A: An increase of two degrees Celsius already has negative effects. If we go beyond it, climate change will become dangerous. Glaciers will melt, up to three billion people will suffer from severe water shortages, mainly in the developing world, we might lose up to 30 percent of our biodiversity, droughts will lead to food insecurity, large regions will be permanently flooded, including small islands, and so forth. That’s why climate change is not only an environmental problem. It’s a threat to livelihoods and economies.

Q: Everyone is talking about the drastic effects of climate change in developing countries. What will be the effects on the global North?

A: Think back to the major heat wave in Europe in 2003. It was a very hot summer (with several people dying from heat strokes). If we don’t get climate change under control, the summer of 2003 will be regarded as a normal summer in 2040. By 2060 it will be regarded as a cool summer. The United States have also felt the impact of changing weather patterns this year, with an unusual number of hurricanes and storms. So yes, the industrialised world will also experience a lot of change and will have to adapt.

Q: Will masses of people in developing countries have to migrate, as some scientists predict?

A: That is very possible. And this will effect the global North as well. If droughts and hunger increase in the South, people will be unable to continue living there. If there are thousands and thousands of climate migrants, the question is of course who will offer them refuge. Many will look expectantly to the North.

Q: When will it be too late to act?

A: If you measure the dangers of climate change based on the two degree Celsius limit, we will have to reach the peak of global carbon emissions within this decade. Scientists say that a drastic reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 would still be an option, but the very last one. I believe, by 2020 it will be too late. Nonetheless, we have to continue making every effort possible, because it makes a big difference if we live in a world that is two, five or six degrees hotter.

Q: Why do you believe emission reductions by 2020 will be too late?

A: The later global carbon emissions peak, the steeper the necessary downward trend of reductions needs to be. Achieving this will not only become very expensive but also extremely difficult. There will be a point in time, when not enough can be done to keep climate change under the two degree Celsius limit. Once we have reached that limit, which means that a certain amount of greenhouse gases sit in the atmosphere, the process of trying to lower temperatures will take decades, because the atmosphere reacts to changes only slowly.

Q: Why does it remain so difficult to convince politicians to act, despite the horror scenarios?

A: The biggest drivers for man-made climate change, the coal, oil and gas industries, are the biggest beneficiaries of our current industrialised economies. They work with major lobbies and large amounts of money against the trend to reduce their share of the economy.

It is also important to note that politicians are elected for four or five years, not until 2040. Within four years, the effects of climate change are not felt very heavily. The big changes lie in the future and happen slowly. As a result, there is a gap between today’s reality and the scientific knowledge of the effects of climate change if we don’t act.

Q: Do climate sceptics influence governments’ hesitant commitment?

A: In the U.S., climate sceptics have massive influence in the debate. In Europe, science has the top hand. That climate change is largely man-made is widely accepted. People have understood that something can be done about it and are more willing to take action. In other countries in the world that’s unfortunately not the case.

Q: How expensive will it become to fight climate change if governments continue postponing mitigation and adaptation measures?

A: According to British economist Nicholas Stern, taking no action will cost up to twenty times more than taking immediate action. Countries like Germany and U.S. have been able to mobilise billions of dollars last year to bail out their banks.

Now, they are trying to tell us that the international community is unable to mobilise 100 billion dollars within a decade to finance climate change adaptation in developing countries. If countries would make climate change as much a priority as the financial system, they would reduce other expenditures to drum up the needed funds. Exactly like they did during the economic crisis. (END)

Casi nadie cree posible un segundo periodo de compromiso del Protocolo de Kyoto. Crédito: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Por Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 9 dic (IPS) – La conferencia climática de la ONU llega a su fin, pero casi nadie cree que se logre un acuerdo para un segundo periodo de compromiso del Protocolo de Kyoto para la reducción de emisiones contaminantes.

La 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17) está previsto que termine este viernes 9 en Durban, Sudáfrica, pero es posible que el debate se extienda incluso hasta la mañana del sábado.

El martes 6 llegaron casi 150 ministros y jefes de Estado, lo que hizo que las negociaciones pasaran al plano político.

Para que se logre un tratado posterior a la expiración en 2012 del Protocolo de Kyoto, firmado en 1997 y en vigor desde 2005, economías emergentes como China, India, Corea del Sur, México y Sudáfrica tienen que estar de acuerdo. Lo mismo ocurre con Estados Unidos, que ni siquiera suscribió el primer periodo del tratado climático.

El mismo hizo que 37 naciones industrializadas se comprometieran a reducir 5,2 por ciento sus emisiones de carbono, tomando como punto de partida los valores de 1990.

Otros grandes contaminadores, como Canadá, Rusia y Japón, ya proclamaron su desinterés en un segundo periodo de compromiso.

A comienzos de esta semana, las negociaciones parecieron promisorias, cuando el principal negociador de China, Xie Zhenhua, anunció que su país estaba abierto a un acuerdo internacional vinculante. Pero su declaración pronto resultó ser un juego estratégico.

Zhenhua no dijo que China estuviera dispuesta a “ser parte de” ese acuerdo.

Muchos expertos en clima creen que Estados Unidos jugó un rol particularmente fuerte en el enlentecimiento de las negociaciones.

“El gobierno de (el presidente estadounidense Barack) Obama evidentemente vino a Durban no para ser constructivo sino para frenar el avance de otros países. Sus excusas para la inacción van y vienen como la marea. Una vez que se elimina una excusa, aparece otra”, se lamentó la portavoz del Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza, Caroline Behringer.

Incluso el secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, echó por tierra las expectativas durante la apertura del segmento de alto nivel de la cumbre, el martes 6. Un acuerdo exhaustivo y legalmente vinculante “puede estar fuera del alcance”, dijo entonces.

Mientras los negociadores intentan llegar a una decisión, se tensa la atmósfera en los corredores del centro de conferencias de Durban, donde se realiza la cumbre.

Ministros y jefes de delegaciones se retiran a salas separadas para debatir a puertas cerradas los contenidos del documento de 131 páginas, base para todas las negociaciones.

Afuera, los delegados hablan en voz baja. Hasta que se anuncie el resultado final, todos retienen el aliento.

La posibilidad de concluir con una hoja de ruta para un acuerdo sobre la reducción de emisiones a partir de 2015 y con plazo en 2020, que incluya a los principales contaminadores y a las economías emergentes, también está en terreno resbaloso.

“Vemos una falta de voluntad política entre algunos grandes emisores (de gases de efecto invernadero) para llegar en Durban a un resultado justo y ambicioso, que salve las vidas y los medios de sustento de millones de personas pobres y vulnerables afectadas por el cambio climático”, dijo Tonya Rawe, de la organización humanitaria internacional CARE.

“Algunas partes ya hablan de postergar las decisiones sobre un acuerdo legalmente vinculante hasta 2020. Esto es un desastre, dado que puede crear una década entera sin ningún avance”, agregó.

Los delegados temen que solamente se alcance una declaración no vinculante, a través de la cual los países declaren vagamente su disposición a acordar objetivos obligatorios de reducción en algún momento.

Hasta ahora, solamente la Unión Europea (UE) y algunos otros países europeos, como Suiza, han expresado que, en las horas que quedan para que termine la cumbre, continuarán impulsando compromisos entre los principales emisores de carbono que actualmente no son parte del Protocolo de Kyoto.

“Todas las principales economías tienen que comprometerse, por supuesto respetando las responsabilidades comunes pero diferenciadas. Si no se comprometen con un acuerdo en el futuro cercano, asumen una responsabilidad insoportable”, advirtió Connie Hedegaard, comisaria europea de Acción por el Clima.

Las negociaciones no solamente giran en torno a una extensión de los periodos del Protocolo de Kyoto. Otro asunto importante es la adopción del Fondo Verde para el Clima, mediante el cual se canalizará el apoyo financiero destinado a esfuerzos de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático en los países pobres.

Pero los debates sobre este tema también han sido escabrosos, luego de que varios países –entre ellos Estados Unidos, Bolivia, Arabia Saudita y Venezuela- dijeron estar insatisfechos con el borrador del documento y querer realizarle enmiendas.

Además, la crisis económico-financiera del mundo industrializado, que se expande al resto del planeta, retrasó los avances en este sentido: los países ricos, que se supone financiarán parcialmente el Fondo Verde, dudan de asumir los compromisos presupuestarios.

Tal como están las cosas, es probable que el Fondo Verde se apruebe en Durban, pero sin planes tangibles para su financiación.

“No tenemos más tiempo que perder para salvar a los más amenazados por el cambio climático”, urgió Mizanur Rahman Bijoy, investigador de la Red sobre Cambio Climático en Bangladesh.

“Pero en vez de actuar, a los gobiernos principalmente les preocupan sus economías nacionales. De ese modo, no se tomará ninguna decisión importante y necesaria”, agregó. (FIN)

South African Bishop Geoff Davies (L) and Mardi Tindal, Moderator of the United Church of Canada

By Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) - African and international faith leaders urged governments attending the final day of climate change negotiations to do what is right and necessary to keep global temperature from rising no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“The two degrees Celsius target is unacceptable because temperatures in much of Africa will be far higher,” said South African Bishop Geoff Davies.

Oil and coal companies along with other major polluting corporations are engaged in “crimes against humanity and the planet” because they continue to pollute the atmosphere when they have ability to do otherwise, said David Le Page of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI).

More than 130 African faith leaders have signed a declaration offering specific recommendations based science, honesty, morality and equity. They called on delegates negotiating a new climate treaty here at the 17^th Conference of Parties to live up to the African spirit of “ubuntu” – a way of living focused on people’s allegiances and relations with each other.

The current economic system encourages “people to get as rich as they can and forget about anyone else,” said Davies. “It’s an immoral system.”

“Historic polluters like the United States have to reduce their emissions dramatically” and their position here is “shocking” and “reprehensible”, he said. The children and grandchildren of U.S. congressmen will ask what they were doing to be so selfish and irresponsible, Davies said.

The U.S is the most religious society in the world but their behaviour is “sinful” in their refusal to reduce emissions that causing so much suffering among people, he said.

“When lifestyles of the wealthy hurt the lives of the poor….and future generations it is wrong,” Mardi Tindal, Moderator of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination.

“Climate change is a moral, ethical and spiritual issue. We need moral leadership not political leadership,” Tindal told IPS.

“South Africa has had courageous, moral leaders like Ghandi and Mandela. If our leadership shows the same moral courage the people will follow them.”

However, political leaders will have to lead by their deeds and personal examples, not words if they hope to bring people with them, she said.

Davies expressed deep disappointment regarding yesterday’s announcement that South Africa government will invest three billion rand to upgrade the Richards Bay Terminal export 81 million tonnes of coal annually by 2016.

Other countries here are expanding their oil production around the world and that is why climate talks will not bring the agreement we need, he said.

“You cannot underestimate the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry. We know they spend millions of dollars lobbying their governments. They are holding the world to ransom and causing the destruction of the environment.”

The good news is that the economically powerful countries like the U.S., Europe, Brazil, India and China could begin to turn this around in a matter of months with major programmes in renewables and energy efficiency. Money should flow to Africa, who is least responsible for climate change, to help them create low-carbon societies Davies said.

If this doesn’t happen “we all will suffer the consequences.” (END)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 9 déc (IPS) – Les économies émergentes - la Chine, l’Afrique du Sud et le Brésil – ont manifesté leur ouverture aux objectifs légalement contraignants de réduction des émissions de carbone à partir de 2020 lors du sommet des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques à Durban.

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) – For the Laibon community, a sub-tribe of Kenya’s Maasai ethnic group, the 33,000-hectare Loita Forest in the country’s Rift Valley Province is more than just a forest. It is a shrine.

Olonana Ole Pulei’s community is a sub-tribe of Kenya’s Maasai ethnic group. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

“It is our shrine. Our Gods live there. We gather herbs from the place. We use it for bee- keeping. It therefore forms part of our livelihood,” said Olonana Ole Pulei, who is in Durban, South Africa, to represent his community at the ongoing 17th Conference of Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

According to Nigel Crawhall, the Director of Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), different African communities have incredible indigenous knowledge that they use in the conservation of forests and biodiversity in general, and this should be recognised during the negotiations in Durban.

“Different communities have different practices that they use in forestry conservation,” he said.

Crawhall gave an example of how the Bambuti and Batwa pygmy communities, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, conserved the forest using traditional methods. Both communities depend on the biodiversity of animal life in the equatorial forests in order to survive.

“Usually, they know how to identify particular trees that can be cut down in order to create a unique opening on the canopy, which attracts light in the closely-packed Congo forests. The light then attracts animals, birds and insects, thus giving them an opportunity to hunt,” Crawhall told IPS.

This helps conserve the biodiversity, as well as the forests because this method can only work if the forest canopy is intact.

In Kenya, the Maasai culture forbids any community member from cutting down a tree, either for firewood or any other purpose. People are also forbidden from interfering with the taproots or removing the entire bark of a tree for herbal extraction.

According to their cultural belief, one can only use tree branches for firewood, and fibrous roots for herbs. If the bark of a tree has medicinal value, then only small portions of it can be removed by creating a “V” in the bark. The wound is then sealed using wet soil.

“We believe that the soil helps in healing the wound on a tree. This is cultural, and we all believe that it is an abomination for one to injure a tree, and not help it heal,” said Ole Pulei.

It is a practice that has been passed down from generation to generation among Maasai community members. Among the Laibon community, it is this indigenous knowledge that has aided in the conservation of the Loita Forest.

“All logging activities observed on Maasai land, including the destruction of the Mau Forest, are done by foreigners because the Maasai culture does not allow such activities. This is the indigenous knowledge that helps in forest conservation,” Ole Pulei told IPS.

Such beliefs make the forests part of the community, where community members have feelings for the trees, and where cutting down a tree could amount to an offence against the Gods and their culture.

“We have several other communities all over the continent who co-exist with forests. They include the Tuareg community in Algeria, Yiaku community in Kenya’s Laikipia region, the Ogiek community also in Kenya, the Kung community in Botswana among others,” said Crawhall.

Though according to Crawhall, all Africans are indigenous although there are some groups who live by hunting and gathering, while other groups practice pastoralism, and others practice dry-land farming.

Despite the fact that there is no standard definition of indigenous people, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognises that particular communities, due to historical and environmental circumstances, have found themselves outside the state system and underrepresented in governance.

“The Bushmen of the Southern African region, or the Ogiek community in Kenya who live in forests are a typical example of groupings categorised as indigenous,” said Crawhall.

He points out that Africa has more than 40 groupings in different countries that survive entirely on hunting and gathering. However, IPACC works closely with 155 communities from 22 African countries who are recognised as indigenous because of their historical and environmental circumstances.

As a result, representatives from these communities have joined the rest of the world in Durban to have their voices heard, so that their contributions to forest conservation are recognised as part of the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

“We believe that African traditional ecological knowledge is the foundation for appropriate and effective national adaptation policies,” said Crawhall.

Through the IPACC secretariat, the 155 community-based organisations in Africa have drafted their position for the Durban negotiation platform. They want the negotiators to come up with a position that is representative to African parties, indigenous African people’s organisations, traditional institutions, traditional authorities and value systems.

They are calling for the formation of a regional body that is legally binding under the United Nations, to handle issues on conservation that are difficult to deal with at national level.

“One of the prevailing gaps in most of the IPACC-member countries is that there is no land tenure for communities who live in forests, or depend on forests,” said Crawhall.

However, different countries have started responding to the needs of their local communities by including them in their national climate change adaptation strategies, with Kenya taking the lead.

The country is in the process of drafting the Climate Change Adaptation Bill. And the indigenous communities will have their say on the bill because according to the constitution, they must be consulted on draft legislation so that they can make contributions.

“We have traversed the entire country seeking views on this bill, where local communities have been able to give their contributions. Our vision is to participate and lead in the development and implementation of climate change sensitive policies, projects and activities within and outside our Kenyan borders,” said John Kioli, the chairman for the Kenya Climate Change Working Group, who is attending the Durban climate change negotiations.

* This article is one of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (END)

Nukunonu Lagoon, Tokelau. Credit: Cloudsurfer/Wikicommons

By Happy Ntsanwisi – Nthavela Newspaper*

DURBAN, Dec 9 – (TerraViva) The 1,500 people of Tokelau have a top-priority interest in climate talks: the highest point on any of the three atolls that make up their home in the Pacific Ocean is only five metres above sea level.

This New Zealand-administered territory is present at the U.N. climate conference to raise its voice in support of a global deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and Tokelau’s leader, Foua Toloa, says the island is doing its own part.

Foua Toloa

By September 2012, the energy supply for the islands’ 1,500 people will be entirely renewable – well, 93 percent. A tiny amount of fossil fuel will still be used for cooking and running the administration’s three cars, but arrays of solar panels will take over generating electricity for the people’s needs. A custom-made generator that runs on coconut oil – oil produced right on the island – will light things up on overcast days.

Now Tokelauans need everyone else to do follow their example.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) - The issue of money is still a substantial part of the negotiations at 17^thConference of Parties in Durban, South Africa. IPS spoke to Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund Board, on the importance of ensuring that developing countries have the funds to deal with the effects of climate change.

Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund Board. Credit: Zukiswa ZImela/IPS

The Adaptation Fund was established by the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its aim is to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries.

Q: Talks in the previous COP’s tended to focus on mitigation but now increasingly the conversation is about mitigation and adaptation. Why is it important that developed countries have finance for adaptation plans?

A: First of all adaptation is one of the most pressing needs of developing countries to adapt to climate change. There are things that won’t change. Already the climate globally has changed and that has created difficult conditions for developing countries. There are new conditions in agriculture, there are droughts and food security is threatened. So it is important to address those issues and help those countries.

Q: One of the things stalling establishment and implementation of the Green Climate Fund is the question of where the almost 100 billion dollars per year needed by developing countries will come from?

A: The money comes from the two percent levy on the shares of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). That is an innovative feature of the fund, because it’s a tax on international corporations. We have also received some contributions from developed countries, namely Spain, Sweden and Germany, but our main source remains from the proceeds of the CDM.

Q: Can you give me an example of some projects that have been funded by the Adaptation Fund.

A: The Adaptation Fund started funding projects last year in September and in one year of operation it has funded eleven projects some in Mauritius, Senegal and Eritrea. The project in Senegal is a project about coastal protection. In South Africa we are working the South African National Biodiversity Institute we have heard that they are getting ready to submit a proposal.

Q: The Adaptation Fund relies on agreements made in the Kyoto Protocol. Other countries like Canada, Russia and Japan have already said that they are not going to be signing on for a second commitment period. What will this mean for you in terms of finance?

A:  Well I don’t know, but the situation will not get better if there are no clear signals after this meeting. We really plead with international community to strive for an agreement in Durban to help those countries. (END)

Tinus de Jager reports from the Climate Change Talks in Durban, South Africa. As the talks draw to a close, the Africa Group gets a positive reward, but all indications are still that little will be achieved at COP 17.

Farmers need help to prosper: but what kind of help? Credit: FISD/IPS

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) Global warming poses a threat to the livelihoods of millions of people who work the land; it is a critical issue for Africa’s climate change agenda. Campaigners agree that changing weather patterns and higher temperatures could spell disaster, but they are arguing for two contrasting responses here at the U.N. climate conference in Durban.

Speakers at a Dec. 3 event titled Agriculture and Rural Development Day called for agriculture to be recognised with a formal work programme in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process, to attract attention and funding for what is termed “climate smart” agriculture.

The key themes discussed included strengthening farmers’ ability to cope with climate shocks, while reducing greenhouse emissions from agriculture and sustainably increasing productivity to meet growing global demand.

The event was attended by numerous researchers and academics, the World Food Programme and U.N. rural agency the International Fund for Agricultural Development, donors like the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation and organisations such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Meeting future demand for food and securing rural prosperity, they argued, requires improving access to markets and agricultural research, the expanded use of inorganic fertiliser to build soil fertility, and credits for agricultural practices that would trap carbon in soil and biomass.

Farmers were represented too, by people such as Stephen Muchiri, of the Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation. “We want a fixed programme on agriculture. That will open up other possibilities,” he said.

Two days later, land and agrarian reform activists struck a very different tone as they marched in support of “food sovereignty’. This group, led by the global smallholder farmer group La Via Campesina, also recognises the need to reduce emissions and design adaptations to contain the threat posed to agriculture by climate change, but argues that the most vulnerable farmers (and the world’s supply of food) also face a threat from the way the economy and land ownership are set up around the world.

They say large corporations that dominate the production of seed and fertiliser, and in many cases determine the prices food and cash crops fetch are as much of a problem for small farmers as increasing climate shocks. They reject the use of chemical fertiliser or proprietary seed to boost productivity, preferring organic fertiliser and water-saving techniques such as permaculture.

For these campaigners, the key is to prevent agriculture and food production from being further dominated by business principles and big business. They are firmly against any attempts to set up a system to pay farmers to sequester carbon.

“We do not want agriculture in the negotiations because that will make it a business,” Via Campesina organiser Boaventura Monjane told TerraViva, referring to the efforts to get carbon credits for famers. “We farm to feed people not for business. If agriculture is included it will kill small-scale farmers because they will start using methods (simply) to increase carbon credits.”

They want to see measures that would give small farmers more independent control: control over their seed, control over their land, control over their wages and working conditions.

What Monjane wants from the 17th Conference of the Parties is a fresh commitment from developed countries to reduce emissions. “If there can be a treaty to influence the bloc to commit to reducing emissions. No second Kyoto Protocol without a commitment to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent.”

Muchiri, of the EAFF, does not see the Via Campesina approach as feasible. “One hundred percent organic farming is not 100 percent sustainable. If we want to increase output and meet food demands, we have to embrace different ways of improving our farming methods. Otherwise we will end up importing our food.”

They are optimistic that their calls will be heeded. With influential international organisations backing them, and South Africa’s Agriculture Minister, Tina Joemat-Petterson, among the high profile spokespersons pushing their agenda, they hope to make a mark in the conference’s final declaration.

Monjane is somewhat more pessimistic. “We do not believe in the COP. For twenty years leaders have been meeting but nothing has changed. COP is a place where government and corporate meet to use public funds and do business. Why must we believe in it?”

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Cartaz do IPCC em Durban. Crédito: IPS África

Durban, África do Sul, 8/12/2011, (IPS) – Suécia, Grã-Bretanha e Alemanha ocupam os primeiros lugares no Índice de Proteção Climática 2012, cujos resultados foram divulgados esta semana na conferência das Nações Unidas que acontece nessa cidade. 

Entretanto, os três primeiros lugares da lista ficaram vazios porque nenhum país faz o suficiente para conter a mudança climática, segundo os critérios do Índice.

De acordo com critérios padronizados, o Índice avalia e compara a conduta quanto à proteção climática de 58 países que, juntos, respondem por mais de 90% das emissões mundiais de dióxido de carbono (CO²) vinculadas à produção e ao consumo de energia. A Suécia, com baixa quantidade de emissões, 50.600 toneladas por ano e uma tendência positiva de redução, segundo os últimos dados da Administração de Informação de Energia dos Estados Unidos (EIA), ocupa o quarto lugar.

O Índice é realizado anualmente pelas organizações Germanwatch e Rede de Ação Climática (CAN). “Os resultados deste ano mostram que, embora as emissões globais continuem aumentando, nenhum dos grandes contaminadores fez as mudanças concretas necessárias”, afirmou o diretor da CAN Europa, Wendel Trio. “Nenhum fez o suficiente”, acrescentou.

A política climática da Suécia não foi ambiciosa o suficiente e ficou curta quanto ao objetivo de a temperatura média mundial não aumentar mais do que dois graus centígrados, limite que pode dar lugar a uma mudança climática desastrosa. Por sua vez, a Grã-Bretanha, em quinto lugar, não conseguiu ajustar os tetos das emissões de carbono, enquanto os gases liberados pela Alemanha continuaram em níveis muito altos para colocá-la em um melhor lugar do que o sexto lugar.

“A qualificação média das políticas nacionais e internacionais é baixa”, afirmou o pesquisador Jan Burck da Germanwatch, um dos autores do estudo. “A maioria dos especialistas não está nem perto de satisfeita com os esforços de seus governos para não ultrapassar o limite de dois graus”, acrescentou.

Países como Turquia, em 58º lugar, Polônia, 56º, e Croácia, 53º, estão nas piores posições devido à avaliação de suas políticas climáticas. Enquanto exerceu a presidência do Conselho da União Europeia, a Polônia bloqueou a proposta de reduzir em 30% as emissões contaminantes do bloco até 2020. E a tendência das emissões e a desfavorável avaliação de suas políticas fizerem com que a Holanda (42º) perdesse 12 posições.

“Uma preocupação especial é que não cessa a tendência global de queimar carvão” e petróleo obtido das areias de alcatrão, alertou Burck. “É a principal razão para o aumento das emissões com relação ao produto interno bruto em muitos países”, acrescentou. A Suíça ficou em nono lugar, atrás de Brasil e França. O Brasil costumava ser um exemplo a ser seguido, mas perdeu sua posição pelo aumento de suas emissões de gases-estufa, inclusive as liberadas pelo desmatamento.

Os Estados Unidos subiram duas posições e ficaram em 52º devido à redução nas emissões, consequência da crise econômica e financeira. Contudo, continua na parte mais baixa da classificação pela má avaliação de suas políticas e pela enorme quantidade de gases que lança na atmosfera. Já a Índia, uma das economias emergentes, caiu 13 posições por causa de seu pior rendimento, especialmente na tendência das emissões.

“O Índice oferece números frios e tendências no contexto de negociações climáticas que costumam permanecer difusas. Esperamos que os países o utilizem como motivação para elevar suas ambições na luta contra a mudança climática”, afirmou Trio.

Com relação à China, o desempenho deste país está repleto de contradições, segundo os autores do estudo. É o maior emissor de dióxido de carbono, com 7,7 milhões de toneladas ao ano, segundo a EIA, e registra um drástico aumento de gases liberados na atmosfera, mas sua política nacional para reduzi-los se intensifica com rapidez.

“A China está construindo a metade da capacidade mundial instalada de energias renováveis ao ano”, disse Burck, prevendo que sua colocação no Índice “melhorará drasticamente”, quando isto começar a ter reflexos na tendência das emissões. Este país, México, Coreia do Sul e África do Sul têm as avaliações mais favoráveis em matéria de políticas para conter o fenômeno climático.

A África do Sul mostra melhor desempenho ano a ano, mas está na 38ª colocação porque suas emissões ainda são altas e mantém a dependência do carvão. A Austrália tomou medidas animadoras e subiu dez posições. Os especialistas reconheceram o novo imposto sobre carbono como uma iniciativa muito positiva. Mas suas emissões muito altas fazem com que permaneça entre os mais contaminantes, em 48º lugar.

Apesar de sua má colocação, “a Austrália apresenta uma tendência muito positiva. Uniu-se ao Protocolo de Kyoto apenas em 2007, mas agora adotou novas e importantes políticas para reduzir suas emissões de dióxido de carbono”, disse Trio. Este tratado, assinado em 1997 e vigorando desde 2005, obriga os países industrializados que o ratificaram a reduzir suas emissões até 2012 em 5,2% com relação aos níveis de 1990.

Os países pior situados na lista do Índice são Kazasquistão, Arábia Saudita e Estônia. A 17ª Conferência das Partes (COP 17) da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre Mudança Climática está reunida em Durban desde 28 de novembro, e até amanhã, para discutir novos compromissos de redução de gases contaminantes. Envolverde/IPS (FIN/2011)

Para Ban, é necessária uma combinação de recursos públicos e privados para combater a mudança climática. Crédito: Kristin Palitza/IPS

Durban, África do Sul, 8/12/2011, (IPS) – Fixar um preço para as emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO²) em todo o mundo é a chave para abastecer o Fundo Verde para o Clima (FVC), que financiará projetos de adaptação ao aquecimento global nos países do Sul. 

Esta é a conclusão a que chegou o primeiro-ministro da Noruega, Jens Stoltenberg, que preside o grupo assessor de alto nível da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) sobre financiamento contra a mudança climática. “Se der para criar um amplo e mais completo financiamento do carbono, será possível atrair mais fundos privados”, explicou.

Fala-se de “financiamento do carbono” quando se estabelece um preço para as emissões de CO² ou outros gases-estufa, causadores do aquecimento global. Segundo Stoltenberg, fixar um valor para o dióxido de carbono traria três benefícios fundamentais: estimular a indústria a reduzir as liberações de gases contaminantes, contribuir para o desenvolvimento de tecnologias limpas para reduzir emissões, e gerar renda, que poderia ser usada com fins governamentais e também em ações climáticas.

Vários países já demonstraram que os sistemas de comércio de carbono ou os impostos sobre as emissões podem ajudar a reduzir a contaminação, já que promovem o crescimento econômico, disse Stoltenberg. “A União Europeia conta com um completo sistema de comércio de carbono e um regime de emissões. A Austrália acaba de criar um imposto sobre carbono. A China está fixando preços para o carbono e a África do Sul também quer desenvolver um imposto. O bom de fixar preços é que se obtém menos contaminação e mais financiamento”, acrescentou o primeiro-ministro.

Nos dez dias da 17ª Conferência das Partes (COP 17) da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre Mudança Climática, que terminará amanhã, nesta cidade, o tema da obtenção de recursos para o FVC foi protagonista. A crise global e as medidas nacionais de austeridade reduziram a disposição dos países ricos em se comprometerem a encher os cofres do Fundo com dinheiro público.

“A crise financeira e a da dívida, especialmente na Europa e nos Estados Unidos, se agravaram. Portanto, devemos procurar tanto financiamento público como privado”, destacou Stoltenberg, que, como copresidente do grupo assessor, apresentou à ONU uma análise propondo medidas para gerar financiamento de longo prazo. “Nossa primeira conclusão é que constituem um desafio, mas é viável mobilizar US$ 100 bilhões ao ano”, afirmou.

O primeiro-ministro se referia a um acordo obtido na COP 16, realizada na cidade mexicana de Cancún no ano passado, segundo o qual o financiamento por via rápida de US$ 10 bilhões anuais entre 2010 e 2013 deveria ser aumentado para US$ 100 bilhões ao ano até 2020. “Não tem nenhum sentido ter um Fundo se não houver dinheiro para ele”, ressaltou.

Por sua vez, o secretário-geral da ONU, Ban Ki-moon, concordou que as metas de financiamento de curto e longo prazos só podem ser alcançadas com uma combinação de recursos públicos e privados. Isto não significa que os governos perderão controle político sobre os mecanismos de financiamento do FVC, algo com que os países se mostraram preocupados.

“Há uma variedade de possíveis opções de financiamento, como os impostos sobre o carbono, o transporte, etc. Dependerá de cada país decidir quais regulamentações quer implantar em nível nacional”, disse Ban. Entretanto, não ignorou os governos do Norte. “Os países industrializados devem mostrar liderança injetando capital suficiente de imediato”, afirmou. “É verdade que os governos lutam com crises, mas a mudança climática não é uma opção, é um imperativo. Precisa de um compromisso político inequívoco e transparente”, ressaltou Ban.

Não haverá avanço na luta contra a mudança climática sem mais financiamento, disse, por sua vez, o primeiro-ministro da Etiópia, Meles Zenawi. “Precisamos criar uma estrutura de preços que atraia o setor privado para investir no financiamento do clima. Fixar preços para o carbono enviará um sinal ao setor privado, indicando que a tecnologia verde é rentável. A tecnologia do futuro é verde. Há uma corrida, e quem chegar tarde ficará defasado”, afirmou.

Entretanto, especialistas em economia duvidam que os países industrializados tenham um verdadeiro interesse em fornecer fundos para a adaptação no Sul. “Não precisamos de mais estudos, precisamos de vontade política”, afirmou o economista Nicholas Stern, conselheiro do governo da Grã-Bretanha.

Quanto mais rápido os políticos agirem, mais barato lhes custará, disse, por sua vez, o presidente do México, Felipe Calderón, pressionando para que o FVC comece a funcionar antes que acabe a reunião em Durban. “Uma economia baixa em carbono não sai barato. Custará centenas de milhões de dólares ao ano, dependendo da rapidez com que agirmos. Quanto mais rápido, menos custará”, ressaltou.

Caio Koch-Weder, vice-presidente do Deutsche Bank, um dos maiores grupos bancários do mundo, expressou sua preocupação sobre o lento progresso para a criação do FVC. A indústria está disposta a investir em uma economia verde, assegurou. “Nos deem um preço para o carbono, nos deem uma política confiável e o setor privado fará a maior parte do trabalho. Já estamos vendo uma grande vibração por parte da comunidade empresarial em interação com os governos. Naturalmente, ainda não em escala e velocidade que precisamos”, acrescentou.

Koch-Weser também disse que a atual crise econômica mundial apresenta uma oportunidade para que governos e negócios se transformem e encontrem novos motores de crescimento. Para poder arrecadar US$ 100 bilhões ao ano até 2020, para financiar a adaptação à mudança climática, “necessitamos de novas associações público-privadas que forneçam contextos transparentes, seguros e de longa duração”, ressaltou. Envolverde/IPS (FIN/2011)

Los países que participan de las negociaciones sobre el clima admitieron públicamente que sus actuales recortes de emisiones contaminantes no podrán limitar el recalentamiento planetario en menos de dos grados. Crédito: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Por Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 8 dic (IPS) – Los países que participan de las negociaciones sobre el clima admitieron públicamente que sus actuales recortes de emisiones contaminantes no podrán limitar el recalentamiento planetario en menos de dos grados.

No obstante, los delegados en la 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17), que se lleva a cabo hasta este viernes 9 en esta oriental ciudad sudafricana, propusieron encarar la llamada “brecha de emisiones” en la próxima COP 18, que se celebrará en Qatar en 2012.

Documentos negociados en Durban reconocen que la reducción necesaria de emisiones de gases invernadero, según estudios científicos, debe ser de 25 a 40 por ciento para 2020. Esos recortes y plazos son vitales para impedir que el planeta se recaliente más de dos grados, lo que significaría una catástrofe ambiental aun mayor. El borrador señala que esa debe ser la meta definida en la COP 18.

“Necesitamos un acuerdo sobre esa meta, fundamentada en la ciencia, el año próximo a más tardar”, afirmó el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Granada, Karl Hood, y representante de la Alianza de Pequeños Estados Insulares.

“Y queremos que esos objetivos sean legalmente implementados antes de 2017″, subrayó.

Hood dijo a IPS que esperar hasta 2020 para cerrar la brecha era “inaceptable” y significaría un “desastre para los pequeños estados insulares”, que ya sufren los impactos del cambio climático.

El mundo tiene apenas meses para poder recortar las emisiones de gases generados por la quema de combustibles fósiles de forma que el recalentamiento planetario no supere los dos grados.

Si esto se demora unos años, las reducciones extraordinarias necesarias para revertir el proceso podrían llevar a la bancarrota a la economía mundial y revertirían avances en el desarrollo en la mayoría de los países, alertaron expertos en Durban.

“Estamos aquí para alertarle a los políticos de que nos acercamos peligrosamente a un punto en el que no podremos alcanzar la meta de menos de dos grados” en el recalentamiento planetario, dijo el científico Bill Hare, director de Climate Analytics, grupo sin fines de lucro asesor en temas climáticos con sede en Alemania.

Los actuales compromisos de reducción de emisiones, acordados en la COP 15 de Copenhague, en 2009, permiten un recalentamiento de hasta 3,5 grados, dijo Hare.

Hoy, esas promesas siguen esencialmente incambiadas, y eso significa que las opciones del mundo para no superar un recalentamiento de dos grados se hacen cada vez más pequeñas, subrayó en conferencia de prensa en Durban.

“Para decirlo claramente, cuanto más esperamos, menos opciones tendremos, más nos costará y mayor será la amenaza para los más vulnerables”, señaló.

Las emisiones mundiales generadas por la quema de combustibles fósiles se incrementaron 49 por ciento desde 1990 y alcanzaron un récord de 48.000 millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono (CO2) en 2010, con la probabilidad de que lleguen a 50.000 millones este año, indicó el científico.

Gracias al efecto moderador de los océanos, el planeta se ha recalentado solo 0,8 grados en promedio. Sin embargo, muchas partes de la Tierra registraron un aumento de las temperaturas mucho mayor.

La ciencia muestra que las emisiones globales deben caer a 44.000 millones de toneladas para 2020 y seguir disminuyendo dos por ciento cada año, una meta que la comunidad internacional, fuertemente dependiente de los combustibles fósiles, encontrará “sumamente difícil” de alcanzar, pero aun así es realizable, aseguró.

Si los países prefieren limitarse a cumplir los compromisos asumidos en Copenhague, las liberaciones de gases invernadero mundiales probablemente crecerán entre 9.000 millones y 11.000 millones de toneladas por encima de la meta de 44.000 millones, creando una “brecha de emisiones” considerable, alertó Niklas Höhne, director de Políticas de Energía y Climáticas de Ecofys, organización consultora sobre energía.

“Nuestros resultados van de acuerdo con el Informe sobre Brecha de Emisiones del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUD), divulgado al inicio de las conversaciones en Durban”, dijo a IPS.

Llama la atención que muchos de los temas de intenso debate en la COP 17 –biocombustibles, agricultura, créditos del carbono para la protección de bosques, captura y almacenamiento de dióxido de carbono– no son considerados importantes por los científicos para reducir las emisiones.

“Con los biocombustibles hay que estar muy seguros de que no deriven en un incremento de las emisiones”, dijo Höhne.

Varios nuevos estudios sobre biodiésel en base a aceite de palma y etanol de maíz indican que sus emisiones netas son más altas que las generadas por la quema de combustibles fósiles cuando se calcula todo su ciclo de vida.

Los biocombustibles no tienen probabilidades de constituir un método significativo para reducir las emisiones, coincidió Höhne, y la agricultura está en la misma categoría. Las prácticas de cultivo pueden ser alteradas para recortar las liberaciones de gases pero, según estudios de diversos escenarios, solo llenarían parte de la brecha.

La brecha de emisiones solo puede ser salvada con una combinación de una mejora de la eficiencia energética en todos los sectores con un significativo incremento del uso de fuentes renovables, incluyendo biomasa, pasando del uso del carbón al gas natural. El costo de este cambio es relativamente bajo: 38 dólares por tonelada de CO2 que no es liberada a la atmósfera.

Pero esperar hasta 2020 sería mucho más caro. Cada dólar que no se destine a la reducción de emisiones del sector energético requerirá una inversión adicional de 4,3 dólares luego de ese año, para compensar todas las liberaciones de gases contaminantes producidas hasta entonces.

Así lo señala el informe “Perspectiva Mundial de Energía 2011″, de la Agencia Internacional de Energía.

Esperar hasta 2020 “es un riesgo que no queremos tomar”, dijo Höhne. Pero los delegados en Durban parecen no comprenderlo. “No actúan como si lo comprendieran”, dijo, señalando que en 17 años de negociaciones no se ha llegado a un acuerdo para reducir sustancialmente las emisiones. (FIN)

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) For a second time, people dressed in the green track suits issued to city volunteers helping out with the U.N. climate conference have clashed with protesting members of civil society. The latest incident took place at Durban’s City Hall – in the presence of South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma was meeting with civil society on issues of climate change, with their demand for a second commitment to replace the Kyoto Protocol top of their concerns. Civil society fears that developed countries – historically responsible for the majority of pollution – will refuse to commit to new emissions reduction targets before Kyoto expires in 2012. There are also fears that the Green Climate Fund which would pay for adaptation measures in developing countries may not be realised when the 17th Conference of Parties ends.

The Rural Women’s Assembly was represented, as were the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the National Union of Mineworkers, the South African Council of Churches and numerous environmental organisations.

Activist Rehad Desai was forced out of the public meeting with President Zuma. Credit: Ramatamo wa Matamong/TerraViva

While KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize was introducing the event, a campaigner held up a sign reading “Stand with Africa! No to Durban Mandate!” Volunteers in the green track suits moved to take it. When film-maker and activist Rehad Desai tried to intervene, and he and several others were wrestled out of the hall.

“They pushed me to the floor and kicked me in the face,” said Desai.

“We were called to come here and express our feelings, this message on the placards is exactly how we feel,” said Samson Mokwena from the Vaal Triangle. “I think these volunteers are being used for cheap political campaigning.”

The action recalls what happened of the start of the Global Day of Action march on Saturday, when volunteers wearing the official tracksuits, issued by the City of Durban to its COP 17 volunteers disrupted the beginning of the march, which had been organised by a coalition of environmental groups including Greenpeace.

Mkhize, convener of the meeting, called everyone to order and stressed that the gathering was not intended for demonstrations, but as an interaction between President Zuma and civil society. “We need to respect each other and raise our views accordingly.”

Taking the floor, rural women told the president to take the lead as the hosting country to encourage parties to commit to Kyoto 2, otherwise small-scale farming will continue to suffer. COSATU said hosting COP 18 in Qatar was inappropriate, given that country’s infamously repressive labour laws.

“As labour movement, we don’t see it a desirable destination, it is not clear how our role is going to be or ever we will be allowed to go there,” said COSATU President Sdumo Dlamini.

Other civil movements said if there is no commitment to a successor to Kyoto, hundreds of millions of people across Africa – people who bear no responsibility for the ruin of the planet – have been condemned to misery, insecurity, dislocation and death.

The world is currently headed for a minimum average temperature rise of four degrees – which would spell an increase of between six and eight degrees for most parts of Africa.

Before responding to the concerns raised by activists, Zuma also condemned the commotion that had unfolded before his eyes. “We defeated the apartheid regime by talking and debating around the table, not with violence. We are here with different views, but let’s tolerate each other.”

Zuma then attempted to dispel the rumour that South Africa has broken away from other African Countries in negotiations. “This is not true. As Africans, we remain united and are one voice for a common goal.”

He said he had taken note of their concerns, but seemed to have disappointed some when he said there are some countries that are more powerful than others.

“Unfortunately there is nothing we can do, we will never be equal. There are those countries in the history of United Nations that have veto rights. Even if we vote on issues, if they don’t want to participate, they are free to do that,” he said.

“However as African colleagues, we remain committed on adaption and mitigation. The rich countries must help developing ones through the Green Climate Fund,” he concluded.

Civil society was not satisfied. “He was vague and lacked details. We are calling for a fair and a binding agreement,” said Desmond D’Sa, a leader of the South Durban Community for Environmental Alliance.

“Zuma must listen to people. South Africa has enough power to influence both EU and U.N. to push the boundary of poverty and inequality.”

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Loopholes in the CDM must be sealed to allow participation of African countries. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 8 (IPS) As the United Nations climate change negotiations comes to a close, environmental experts agree that carbon markets could provide the funds for climate change adaptation and mitigation projects, but only if existing loopholes are sealed to allow participation of African countries.

“When the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was introduced under the Kyoto Protocol, we all knew that it was a fantastic idea because it was, and still is, the only mechanism that enables developing countries to take action against global warming,” said Mithika Mwenda, a climate change expert and the Coordinator for the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance. The CDM allows emission reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one ton of CO2. These can be traded.

Currently, there are more than 3,600 registered CDM projects in 72 developing countries worldwide, with about three percent of them in Africa.

However, according to Mwenda, the architectural designs for implementing projects such as the CDM is far beyond the reach to most African organisations, institutions and communities because of the investment cost and the conditions attached.

“It has worked well in other countries like China, but less can be achieved from the African continent, which unfortunately is bearing the biggest burden of climate change,” he told IPS.

Mwenda cautions that there is a danger that the developed world will use carbon credit markets as an excuse to pollute more.

“In many cases under the markets’ architecture, the developed countries are allowed to pollute, and then buy credits from developing countries that sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Yet, what we need first is a commitment to reduce carbon from the atmosphere and to then use the markets as a supplement,” he said.

Lessons about carbon funding projects in Africa can be drawn from the Green Belt Movement, a non-governmental organisation implementing a CDM project in Kenya.

“It is clear that it requires massive investment to kick-start and sustain a CDM project,” Benjamin Kimani Kiuru, the senior project officer in charge of Climate Change and Carbon Projects at the Green Belt Movement, told IPS.

He said there were limiting conditions in the Kyoto Protocol that made it difficult for Africa to benefit from the CDM.

“One of the most limiting conditions as stipulated under the Kyoto Protocol is that the site where trees are to be planted must have been deforested before 1990. Yet given the fact that most forests in Africa have been intact until after the 1990s when people started destroying them, it makes it very difficult for investors to locate appropriate sites suitable for such projects,” said Kiuru.

His sentiments were echoed by David Lesolle, a climate change expert at the University of Botswana’s Department of Environmental Science.

“The way CDM was structured is that you need it only if you are ‘dirty’ (where countries have destroyed their carbon sinks). Yet Africa is not dirty,” he told IPS at the 17^th Conference of Parties.

But he quickly pointed out there is need to continue implementing the CDM because it still plays a role in climate change mitigation.

Also, Africa does not have experts to develop CDM project designs.

“We have to rely on experts from the developed world, which is an extremely expensive affair,” Kiuru said.

Lack of upfront funding from the World Bank for CDM projects was listed as another limiting factor.

So far, the Green Belt Movement has planted 1.5 million trees on 1,500 hectares in Kenya under the CDM, but the first disbursement of money from the World Bank is expected to come through only next year when the project is supposed to be assessed.

“It is important to note that two percent of money generated under the CDM projects worldwide is supposed to be used for adaptation. And today, the Climate Adaptation Fund has over 160 million dollars, which countries and organisations are supposed to apply for – but they haven’t,” said Lesolle.

However, Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change believes the CDM has been successful.

“CDM is a success story of the Kyoto Protocol. It has incentivised investment in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainable development in some 72 countries.

“The object of the dialogue is to reflect on the CDM experience – both the good and the bad – and build on this important mechanism for the future,” Figueres told the media during launch of a high-level policy dialogue on the CDM. (END)

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 8 (IPS) – The last hours of the 17th United Nations climate change summit in Durban have begun. Since the arrival of almost 150 ministers and heads of state on Tuesday, negotiations have moved to the political level. They are expected to debate the way forward until late Friday night, or even Saturday morning.

Almost nobody believes that a second, comprehensive commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is still possible. / Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Hopes for a breakthrough, or at least tangible results, are slim. Almost nobody believes that a second, comprehensive commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the only international legally binding instrument to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which includes all major emitters, is still possible.

For this to happen, emerging economies like China, India, Korea, Mexico and South Africa would have to come on board, as well as the United States, a country which has not even ratified the first period of the protocol. Other major emitters, like Canada, Russia and Japan have already proclaimed their disinterest in a second commitment period.

The initial commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, under which 37 industrialised nations have committed to an average of five percent carbon emission reductions compared to emission levels in 1990, will expire at the end of 2012.

Earlier this week, negotiations briefly looked somewhat promising, when China’s head negotiator Xie Zhenhua announced his country was open to internationally, legally binding agreements. But his statement soon turned out to be part of a strategic game. But Zhenhua did not say that China was willing to “be part of” those binding agreements as well.

Many climate experts believe the U.S. has played a particularly strong role in slowing down the progress of the negotiations.

“The Obama administration has apparently come to Durban not to be constructive, but to hold other countries back. Their excuses for inaction ebb and flow like the tide. Once one excuse is removed, another emerges,” lamented World Wide Fund for Nature spokesperson Caroline Behringer.

Even U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon dampened expectations during the opening of the high-level segment of the summit on Tuesday. A comprehensive, legally binding agreement “could be out of reach”, he said.

While negotiators try to come to a decision, the atmosphere in the corridors of the Durban conference centre, where the summit is taking place, remains tense. Ministers and heads of delegations have retreated to conference rooms to further debate the contents of the 131-page document, the basis for all negotiations. Outside of the closed doors, delegates talk with lowered voices. Until the official announcement of the end-result, everyone is holding their cards close to their chests.

The possibility of concluding with a roadmap for an agreement to negotiate emission reductions from 2015 that will include major emitters and emerging economies, also stands on shaky ground. Under the agreement, all major carbon emitters would agree to internationally legally binding reductions by 2020 at the latest.

“What we are seeing is a lack of political will by some major emitters to reach an outcome in Durban that is fair and ambitious and that saves the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor and vulnerable people who are affected by climate change today,” says Tonya Rawe, senior policy advocate of global humanitarian organisation CARE.

“Some parties are already talking about delaying decisions on a legally binding agreement until 2020. This is a disaster as it can create an entire decade of zero progress,” he added.

Delegates fear that only a non-binding declaration will be reached, through which countries will vaguely declare their willingness to agree to binding reduction goals at some point in the future.

So far, only the European Union (EU) and some other European countries, like Switzerland, have vouched to continue pushing for commitments from major carbon emitters that are currently not part of the Kyoto agreement over the remaining hours of the summit.

“All major economies need to commit, of course respecting common but differentiated responsibilities. If they will not commit to an agreement in the foreseeable future, they take on an unbearable responsibility,” warned Connie Hedegaard, commissioner for climate action at the European Commission who spoke on behalf of the EU.

The negotiations do not only revolve around an extension of the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. Another important subject is the adoption of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through which financial support for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts will be channelled to developing countries. By 2020, 100 billion dollars should be mobilised annually from public and private funds.

But the discussions around the GCF, too, have been staggering, after several countries, including the U.S., Bolivia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela announced they were dissatisfied with the draft document and would like to re-open the text for amendments.

In addition, the global financial crisis has slowed down progress on the fund: rich countries, that are supposed to partially finance the GCF, are hesitant to make budgetary commitments. As it looks, the fund is likely to be signed off in Durban, if at all, but as an “empty shell”, without tangible plans on how it will be financed.

“We don’t have any more time to lose to safe those who are most threatened by climate change,” urged Mizanur Rahman Bijoy, a researcher with the Network on Climate Change in Bangladesh. “But instead of taking action, governments are mainly concerned about their national economies. That way, no important and necessary decisions will be made. (END)

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 8 (IPS) – Countries at the United Nations climate change negotiations have publicly acknowledged their current pledges to reduce carbon emissions will not result in limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.

Reducing carbon emissions will not result in limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela

To bridge their shortfall, delegates at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) climate talks proposed on Wednesday to address this so-called “emissions gap” at COP 18 in Qatar next year.

Documents under negotiation in Durban, South Africa acknowledge the science-based emissions reduction target of 25 to 40 percent by 2020. Those reductions and that timeline are what is needed to stay below two degrees Celsius. The draft text says this would be the target to be agreed on at COP 18.

“We need agreement on that science-based target next year at the latest,” said Karl Hood, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Caribbean island of Grenada and representing the Alliance of Small Island States.

“And we want those targets to legally come into force before 2017.”

Hood told IPS waiting to close the gap until after 2020 is “unacceptable” and a “disaster for small island states” who are already suffering the impacts of climate change.

The world has months to curb emissions from burning fossil fuels before two degrees Celsius of warming will be impossible to stay below. Delay a few years and the extraordinary emission cuts needed could bankrupt the world’s economy and reverse development gains in most countries, climate experts warned at the largely deadlocked United Nations climate change conference here.

“We’re here to warn policy makers that we are dangerously close to not being able to meet the less than two degrees Celsius target,” said Bill Hare, Director of Climate Analytics, a non-profit climate science advisory group based in Germany.

The current pledges made by countries to cut emissions after the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 will result in global warming of 3.5 degrees Celsius, said Hare a climate scientist. Two years later, those pledges remain essentially unchanged and that means the world’s options to stay below two degrees Celsius are narrowing Hare said in press conference during the COP 17 negotiations that conclude Friday.

“To put it bluntly, the longer we wait, the less options we will have, the more it will cost …and the bigger threat to the world’s most vulnerable,” he said.

Global emissions of fossil fuels have increased 49 percent since 1990 and reached a record of about 48 gigatonnes (billion tonnes) of CO2 in 2010 and likely 50 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 this year, he said. Thanks to the moderating affect of the oceans, the world has warmed only 0.8 degrees Celsius on average, however, many parts of the world are much warmer than that.

The science shows that global emissions need to fall to 44 Gt by 2020 and continue to decline by two percent per year, a rate that our fossil fuel-dependent world will find “extremely challenging” but still doable, he said.

If countries live up to their pledges made in Copenhagen global emissions are likely to rise nine to 11 Gt above the 44 Gt target creating an “emissions gap” that is quite considerable, said Niklas Höhne, Director Energy and Climate Policy of Ecofys, an energy consulting organisation.

“Our results are in agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Bridging the Emissions Gap Report released at the opening of the Durban climate talks,” he told IPS.

The new UNEP report calculates a similar emission gap and outlines the way reductions can be made between now and 2020 to bridge that gap. Shockingly many of the items under intense debate at here at the COP 17 – biofuels, agriculture, carbon credits for forest protection, carbon capture and storage – are not considered important pathways to reduce emissions by scientists.

“With biofuels you have to be very sure they won’t result in a net increase in emissions,” said Höhne.

A number of new studies of palm oil biodiesel and maize ethanol show their net emissions are higher than fossil fuels when their entire lifecycle is calculated.

Biofuels are unlikely to be a significant method for reducing emissions, agreed Höhne. Agriculture is in the same category. Farming practices could be altered to reduce emissions but based on analysis using various reduction scenarios they would only be a small part of the “bridge”.

The emissions gap can only be bridged with a combination of improving energy efficiency in all sectors, significant increase in renewable energy including biomass power and shifting from coal to natural gas. The cost of making this shift is relatively low at 38 dollars a ton of CO2 avoided.

Wait until after 2020 and costs skyrocket. Every every dollar not invested today to reduce emissions from the power sector will require an additional investment of 4.3 dollars after 2020 to compensate for all the additional emissions between now and then said the International Energy Agency in its “World Energy Outlook 2011″ report.

Waiting till 2020 is “a risk we don’t want to take,” said Höhne. Delegates here do understand all this, he believes. “They don’t act as if they understand,” he said referring to the lack of progress on a deal to substantially reduce emissions despite 17 years of negotiations.

These scenarios do not include potential emissions from natural sources — feedbacks — like thawing permafrost as the Arctic region rapidly warms. Permafrost hold huge volumes of carbon and methane accumulated over the past 750,000 years.

The first estimate of the near-term volume of global warming gases from permafrost thaw may be 170 Gt of CO2 over the next three decades a team of 40 scientists reported last week. That means global warming could be “20 to 30 percent faster than from fossil fuel emissions alone,” said Edward Schuur of the University of Florida in a release.

“At the moment climate change is not high on the agenda of all heads of states,” said Höhne.

(END/2011)

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) Some very enthusiastic and excited teachers and environmentally aware students fresh from completing their year-end exams visited the U.N. climate conference this week.

Youth from Zwelibanzi High School in Umlazi at the COP. Credit: Andre Marais/TerraViva

The group came from at Zwelibanzi High School in Umlazi just outside Durban, a township ravaged by poverty and unemployment and a high incidence of AIDS.

TerraViva spoke to teachers Zonke Msholo, Zamo Mbatha and Busi Ngwenya who seemed as delighted as their young charges as they toured exhibitions and activities at the climate conference.

Q: How has your school involved learners to participate in environmental issues on a practical level?
A: We have many single household families in Umlazi, but also many child-headed families, and they are all going through difficult economic times. So food garden projects become very important as a source of cheap food for our communities.

Learners are centrally involved in planting and caring for these gardens. Despite many challenges, they have proven to be very dedicated and enthusiastic about the gardens.

We have integrated environmental awareness in our school programme and curriculum, in subjects like social science, natural science and life orientation. But we will definitely also take the knowledge and materials we have gathered here and apply them in our teaching.

Q: What are the challenges?
A: I would say it’s maintaining interest from parents and the community, but even that is improving. The school is really a second home for many of our learners. But poverty and malnutrition are made worse by AIDS and the cost of HIV to families.

Q: What support do you receive from the education department?
A: They provide the feeding scheme which our food gardens supplement. The department has encouraged our initiative, but of course more can be done.

Q: How many of your learners do you think will consider environmental jobs as a career option?
A: Well, many of them already have an interest in the area of science. We must wait and see…

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) After winning the award for best stand at the exposition outside the climate conference, Cape Town’s striking entry is continuing to score big in terms of the number of visitors per day.

Outside the distinctive building made of green and black milk crates and recycled wood, there is a solar-powered stove putting the Durban sun’s rays to good use boiling water and cooking meals. Groups of visiting school children circle the perimeter, exclaiming over the lettuce and spinach growing in recycled two-litre bottles.

The building’s design keeps the interior cool without the use of electricity-hungry air conditioners, and members of Cape Town’s ClimateSmart team are taking advantage to discuss how to carry the project forward.

The outline of Table Mountain is built into the recycled crate walls of Cape Town's exhibition. Credit: Ramatamo wa Matamong/TerraViva

Cape Town’s stand won top prize after assessment by a panel of four judges drawn from various environmental organisations.

“ClimateSmart deserved this acknowledgement as they were harnessing all the power needed for their stand through a wind turbine and solar panels,” said judge Pippa Walker, from the Event Greening Forum.

“They also used plastic bottles and crates to build the walls and the roof of their stand (an innovative example of how one can recycle materials). They did so with no need for sophisticated air conditioning.”

But the team responsible is not resting on its laurels.

“Honestly, the work doesn’t end here,” says Stephen Granger, Green Campaign Manager for the City of Cape Town. “We didn’t build the four walls just for somewhere to meet people, but we built a stand that could tell a message.”

Stephen Lamb, who built and co-designed the stand agrees. “The most important thing is to think about poor people, those who are most affected. The stand can become a creator of climate jobs. In building the stand, we employed and transferred skills to local people. We’ve also used local material,” he said.

“With the support and a mandate from the government, we would like them to try and apply this. It cost literally nothing. It comes from the Mother Nature with love. The scaffolding is the only material that is not natural. This can be converted into a day care centre, an environmental centre or a mobile clinic of some sort.”

Lamb said there has been interest from the office of the mayor in Cape Town which should ensure the stand’s life extends beyond its exhibition at the conference.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) “One mosquito can’t do anything against a rhino, but a thousand mosquitos together can make a rhino change its direction,” said Kjell Kuhne of Global Plan Foundation under the Plant For The Planet Academy.

The academy has been doing many workshops in and around Durban, including in townships such as Inanda and Chatsworth, where they have been working at primary schools and other public institutions to expose children to be aware of the environment.

Climate justice ambassadors. Children plant trees while the adults negotiate. Credit: Khanyisile Xulu/TerraViva

Their aim is to expose children to what the future might hold for them so that they can become more environmentally conscious and fight for their future.

Plant For The Planet Academy has been explaining to children what climate change is, how it is caused and what they can do to slow it down. Planting trees is an important part of this process.

Once the children have completed the course, they become “climate change ambassadors” said Khune. As such, they are also allowed to be voted onto the board.

“Worldwide, we are already active in over 100 countries. We want to have empowered one million children in about 20 000 academies to become Climate Justice Ambassadors by 2020. As a large network of global citizens, we can change the world,” he said.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Credit: Stephen de Tarczynski/IPS

Busani Bafana

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 8 — Coal currently fuels 40 percent of global electricity needs, according to the World Coal Association, which argues there is a place for the abundantly available fuel even in a future with reduced emissions.

“Just as there are some bad examples of coal, there are good ones as there are many governments around the world that want to use coal in a way to fuel their economic growth and alleviate poverty, ” WCA CEO Milton Catelin told a side event on the role of coal in climate change at the 17th Conference of Parties in Durban.

“The trick from a policy and activity perspective is how do you make companies and governments that mine the coal to gasify it in a way that is environmentally sustainable.”

According to Catelin, the world has an estimated 984 billion tonnes of  proven reserves of coal, but environmentalists have argued that coal should be done away with as energy source because it pollutes the environment.

The current negotiations for a new agreement on climate change hinge on cutting global emissions. The Coal Industry Advisory Board – a group of high level executives which advises the International Energy Agency – says coal is responsible for more than 40 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

Speaking at the same side event in Durban, Norman Mbazima, CEO of mining giant Anglo American, said coal companies support cleaner use of coal. One way to achieve this is to improve the efficiency of coal plants in the world.

“The biggest contribution to emissions reduction comes from efficiency. We must  all have more efficient cars, more efficient ships and more efficient planes, but most importantly more efficient coal-powered power plants,” said Mbazima.

Carbon capture and storage is also being touted as a way to save coal’s dirty face. The concept involves capturing, compressing and storage of carbon emissions from generating plants, preventing them from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. CCS has been identified by the coal industry as a key technology that could help it cut greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, but it has not yet been demonstrated to be effective. Critics say even if the technique is developed and commercialised, it will likely prove to be prohibitively expensive.

Mbazima told the side meeting that 1.4 billion people in the world still lack access to electricity – 600 million of those in sub-Saharan Africa. He said coal was the answer to providing electricity to these people because it was plentiful and cheap even though it was not clean.

The WCA argues that if current coal-powered plants were replaced with more efficient plants, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by six percent. Carbon capture would enable further reductions.

But environmentalists say coal has no place in cleaner, greener future – or in the climate change mitigation agenda.

“We see coal as an unacceptable energy resource because of the extreme impacts it has on human health,” said Cesia Kearns, campaign organiser for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “We need to act now and the negotiators at COP17 need to pay attention to the conversation happening outside the venue and remember how much the weight their decisions will have on people from all nations who are bearing the burden of climate change. They need to get us quickly onto the path of doing away with coal and fossil fuel industries that have created the problem of climate change.”

Kearns said there are numerous alternatives to coal. Africa has abundant in solar and wind resources that should lead the way for green energy.
Jennifer Morgan, Director of Climate and Energy programme at environmental think-tank the World Resources Institute, says the argument about universal energy access depending on electricity from coal-fired plants has no basis.

Taking India as an example, she said the reason more than 400 million of people have no access to electricity is not so much the cost of expanding generation, as it is that urban areas, and industries in particular are prioritised for electricity supply – and in some cases sold power at very low prices, the government depriving itself of resources for rural electrification.

“We do not have time to act as if we have a lot of the atmosphere left,” Morgan warned. Her institute is crafting a policy framework for renewable energy and energy efficiency to help in promoting the development of renewable energy sources.
(Ends)

DURBAN, Dec 6 – (TerraViva) A just-published study of trends in temperature, rainfall, droughts and flooding in the Sahel region of West Africa over the past 40 years provides further evidence of the threat posed by climate.

New evidence of a changing climate in the Sahel – a semi-arid savannah that stretches across West Africa from Senegal in the west to Chad in the east – has major implications for food security and regional stability.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, the Sahel suffered devastating droughts and famine that killed thousands people and forced hundreds of thousands to migrate elsewhere,” says researcher Jakob Rhyner from the United Nations University.

The report, titled “Livelihood Security: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Sahel”, was released at the U.N. climate conference in Durban, and adds to the pressure to reach a new international agreement to limit global warming as well as adapt to the changes that it is already too late to prevent.

The research is a joint effort by the U.N. Environment Programme, the U.N. office of the Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs, U.N. University, the International Organization for Migration, and the permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel, with technical input from the University of Salzburg’s Centre for Geoinformatics.

The study looked at regional trends in temperature, rainfall, droughts and flooding over the past 40 years and their implications for the availability of natural resources, sustainability of livelihoods, and increased migration and conflicts in 17 West African countries

The trends show significant changes in climatic conditions between 1970 and 2006, including an overall rise in temperature of approximately one degree, with the far eastern parts of Chad and the northern parts of Mali and Mauritania warming by between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The report identified 19 “climate hotspots” where changes have been the most severe, including sites far inland in Niger and Chad and coastal regions of Togo and Benin.

Dwindling resources make tasks like finding firewood a challenge. Credit: Ann Holmes/IPS

The report’s authors say the consequences can be seen in the loss of livestock and crops due to drought leading to not only higher food prices, but migration of farmers to find new opportunities. The changes have also increased conflict linked to competition for water and land among fishermen and farmers.

In their recommendations, the researchers said it would be important to follow-up by monitoring livelihoods throughout the region: keeping a close watch on changes in the availability of resources and any linked migration and conflict. Systematic data collection and early warning mechanisms will also be important.

Researchers urge investing in renewable energy sources to create jobs and income for farmers and herders, such as building and maintaining solar installations.

They called for support for smallholder farmers, including tips for farming in the new conditions and assistance to expand production of valuable organic cash crops for export. It may also be essential to introduce new crops that can withstand harsh climates.

Speaking to TerraViva separately, Nick Nuttal, from the United Nations Environment Programme, agreed. “Across the world, it is important that the right kind of crops are planted.”

Alongside support for agriculture, the researchers urge investing in renewable energy sources to create jobs and income for farmers and herders, building and maintaining solar installations for instance, to supplement their income.

They also warned that programmes must take care not to reinforce existing gender or ethnic inequalities, but should involve local participation and perspectives to reach the most vulnerable.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, Dec 7 – (TerraViva) At several sites across Southern Africa, school children are learning the principles of permaculture, a set of agricultural techniques which avoids disturbing the soil, instead keeping it covered with mulch to preserve water and fertility. TerraViva encountered a group of these children who were lucky enough to visit the U.N. climate conference along with two of their trainers.

Kerry Anne Smith and Mugrove Walter Nyika, who work for an NGO called Seeding Schools, brought ten primary school learners involved in the Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture (Rescope) Programme in Malawi and Zambia to the 17th Conference of Parties to meet other people from like-minded organisations and broaden their exposure to environmental issues.

Q: What is the Rescope programme?
A: We are a project working in the area of permaculture. We work with communities and particularly with schools with the idea of using the school as a venue and a centrre to educate the broader and surrounding communities about the importance of permaculture. In rural areas, the school is often a multi-purpose venue for community meetings and church gatherings.

Q: What is permaculture?
A: It is an agicultural practice and a design system for creating sustainable human environments. It is a framework that farmers and communities can use which mimics the natural rhythms of nature and allows the natural processes to play their roles in the farming process.

In our project, we use a wide range of environmentally-friendly techniques such as ago-forestry and intercropping to build good agro-ecological land use systems that are in harmony with nature.

Q: How do farmers practically apply permaculture?
A: Permaculture farmers dont dig at all but prepare the land with deep sheet-mulch spread onto soil soon after the last harvest. The mulch includes crop residues, leaves, grass, termite mound dirt, compost and manure. Before the rain is expected, they make small holes in the mulch where they plant and cover the seeds.

So it is less expensive and also less work. Dry planting also gives seeds the longesst possible growing season, while a deep mulch keeps light away from weed roots so fewer weeds grow.

Q: Can you give an example of a success of your programme?
A: There have been many. There is primary school in Malawi which we transformed from a grey mud and cement structure into a beautiful green garden within a year. Complete with with trees and plants, thanks to the implementation of permaculture.

Q: How are the schoolkids involved?
A: Permaculture becomes part of their currriculum and subject areas at school – straddling geography, science and life skills – which has real practical value.

They help plant vegetable and fruit gardens. And they in turn educate their parents about using the permaculture method. It makes learning very real.

Q: You brought along a group of young people – what is the purpose of exposing them to the climate conference?
A: The children come from our different projects at schools in Malawi and Zambia. We saved up with the help of some kind individuals and organisations to make this trip.

We think it is important for them to experience this conference and learn more about environmental isuues. The trip affords them to chance to to be part of so many interesting things going on COP 17.

Q: What is the most important thing you think they will take away from the conference?
A: That we are not alone. That there are people who think like us. We met many people here who are just as passionate about permaculture.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Tinus de Jager reports from COP 17 in Durban that the African negotiators have a clear idea of what they want from the climate talks.

Kofi Annan says lack of funds must not hold back the fight against climate change. Credit: Zuki Zimela/IPS

By Busani Bafana

Durban, Dec. 7 — The global financial crunch is not a reason to avoid climate-friendly investments that will help Africa’s agriculture grow says former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

“Global leaders are struggling with continuing financial turmoil, rising unemployment and increasing social tension,” Annan said at a panel discussion on climate-smart agriculture on the sidelines of COP 17 in Durban, South Africa.

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) involves conservation agriculture: this would include crop rotation, agro forestry, better weather forecasting and integrated crop-livestock management. CSA is aimed at environmentally friendly increases in food production, thereby reducing carbon emissions from agriculture. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated emissions from farming to be at 14% of the world total in 2007.
Annan says world leaders cannot ignore the crises faced by food production through climate change.

The former UN chief wants the developed world to own up the $100 billion they pledged in Copenhagen for the Green Climate Fund by 2020.

“The financial crisis has shown the gravity of waiting for disaster to strike before taking action.”

According to the Action on Climate Smart Agriculture policy brief, compiled by the African Union and South Africa’s Ministry of Agriculture, food security, poverty and climate change should be seen as one entity in the fight against climate change.

South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, says transformation of African agriculture is key through Climate Smart Agriculture.

Joemat-Petterson, however, wants the equivalent of a political revolution to deal with climate change.

“We need alternative ideas to overthrow what is holding the continent and the globe at ransom,” said Joemat-Pettersson. “We must end this dictatorship of climate change. We want to make sure that we all have an action plan for CSA. We have done the talking and now is the time for us to pick up our axe, to pick up our spade and roll up our sleeves and do the work.”

The World Bank, which is working with African Union to reach target set in Maputo in 2003 of 10 percent of national budgets spent on agriculture, agreed that climate-smart farming needs greater attention to transform African agriculture.

Finally, adding to the climate-smart agriculture discussions, the Africa Union Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping, wants water management high on Africa’s climate change agenda.

“Let us not neglect water, water is an important resource … we can eradicate famine with the management of water.”
(Ends)

Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

Entire societies will be lost forever if we delay reaching a climate change agreement in Durban, warns Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of the Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (COAST).

“Let us not be witness to that unfortunate happening. Extreme events beyond everybody’s expectation are now observed more and more frequently and we know the consequence of that,” Chowdhury said.

Governments of low-lying island states such as the Maldives, the Bahamas, or the Pacific nation of Kiribati say their very physical existence is threatened by sea level rise of one metre – anticipated to take place by 2100.

Chowdhury’s home country, Bangladesh, is also caught in the crosshairs of global warming – rising temperatures and sea levels, changing weather patterns increasing catastrophic flooding from both swollen rivers and storm surges from intensifying monsoons will hit this low-lying, agriculture-dependent country full in the face.

A map produced by the United Nations Environment Programme shows that an area of this South Asian state that is home to 15 million people will be entirely submerged by a one-metre rise in sea levels. Long before then, increasing numbers of floods will erode riverbanks, and destroy homes, farms, roads and other infrastructure while taking longer to recede, hampering agriculture. Lingering floodwater will test public health systems wrestling with waterborne diseases.

The fears of Bangladesh and other low-lying states are an urgent reminder as the 17th Conference of Parties remains unlikely to agree on even a minimal programme of emissions reductions by developed countries – historically the worst polluters – or financial assistance for vulnerable developing nations.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon poured cold water on the talks Tuesday Dec. 6 when he told delegates that a global, legally-binding deal on climate change could well be off the agenda for now. He blamed grave economic troubles in many countries for overshadowing the talks, which are now in their second week but little tangible progress before they conclude on Dec. 10.

South African Bishop Geoff Davies head of the Anglican Church compared rich countries’ behaviour in Durban to apartheid, saying wealthy nations were trying to keep power and wealth for themselves. “Decision makers need to put the needs of people and the planet before profits.”

The parties remain sharply divided. Coastal states, small island nations and the Africa group are pushing for a second commitment by developed countries to reduce emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The U.S. and Canada say any new commitment should be delayed until after 2020. These two governments are also rejecting a legally-binding global agreement. Japan at one point threatened to pull out altogether.

The European Union has taken up a position somewhere in the middle, proposing a second commitment period to start somewhere around 2015. The EU also says this is on condition that other polluters – such as fast-growing China – are brought on board.

“We have committed under Kyoto and we have actually over achieved in the first commitment period,” said Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action. “But Europe only accounts for 11 percent of global emissions and that is why we are saying two things. We are ready to agree a second commitment period even though the family of countries who are ready to do so is shrinking; however we need reassurance that if we lay down a bridge to the future, then others will follow.”

The Congolese chair of the Africa Group, Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, says it’s hard to understand why the developed countries are behaving as they are.

“They says they want rules on climate change, but they don’t like the Kyoto Protocol. It’s hard to comprehend. If you want the mango, then you have to like the mango tree also,” he said. “If you want the carbon markets to continue, you must have robust transparent rules to continue – you have to keep the mango tree (binding emissions reduction agreements).”

He said the Africa Group is looking to the rich countries which have enjoyed a certain level of development at the cost of everyone’s atmosphere to now show leadership on climate change.

“They have shown us economic leadership, they have shown us political leadership and sometimes even military leadership, so let’s see them show us climate leadership.”

The pessimsism expressed by Secretary General Ban and COAST’s Chowdhury hangs over the conference venue, but some – like Paul Mafabi, a negotiator from Uganda – say it was already foregone conclusion that a deal would not be struck because of the economic crisis gripping the biggest offenders.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that small island and developing states are threatened not just by economic crisis, but by devastating and permanent disaster. And the real baseline demand of small island and developing states – measures to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and avoid devastating changes in these vulnerable states – is not even on the table.

(Ends)

Credit: Yanethe Gamboa/IPS

Joshua Kyalimpa Interviews JOAO SAMUEL CAHOLO, Deputy Executive Secretary, Southern African Development Community (SADC)

DURBAN, Dec — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has devised a plan to mainstream water resources management. On the sidelines of the U.N. climate change conference taking place in Durban, there have been efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations.

Water experts say this will lead to greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.

Q: SADC has been part of efforts to get water into the United Nations on the agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – thus far without success.

A: Questions of climate change are matters of global responsibility, so we shall continue with the issue. There is the Rio+20 conference next year,  there is also COP 18 next year: we should continue to discuss within our constituencies and plan for how the issues of water can be brought to the larger agenda of climate change.

Q: What is SADC’s next step?
A: We already have political consensus, enshrined in the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses, so the political commitment in SADC is already there. The next step is for us to establish real institutions to address the issues at the national level and also develop transboundary  water resources.

Q: But how are you going to achieve this when water is not mainstreamed? Where will you get the financial resources to have develop water resources?

A: For us, money is not actually the issue. It’s a question of a commitment to implement what we have agreed upon, because money can be found in different ways. It can come from various international sources, but also it can come from our own treasuries and SADC has best practices in this regard.

Q: What are you doing to raise the general awareness of water issues in the region?

A: As SADC, we have the protocol which recognises the need for transboundary water resources to be managed jointly. That program is being implemented. I don’t want to say that SADC is singling out just one issue with water, but we are confident it will be accorded due attention in future negotiations.

Camino en la selva amazónica de Acre para transportar árboles caídos. Crédito: Mario Osava/IPS

Por Fabiana Frayssinet

RÍO DE JANEIRO, 7 dic (IPS) El Senado de Brasil aprobó un nuevo Código Forestal en medio de críticas ecologistas y elogios de sectores vinculados a la gran agricultura. El proyecto debe volver a la cámara baja y ser sancionado por la presidenta Dilma Rousseff para convertirse en ley.

Para los ambientalistas, el texto constituye un estímulo a la tala de la Amazonia, mientras el poderoso sector agropecuario ve en él un avance para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de este país de 192 millones de habitantes.

La reforma, aprobada el martes 6 por 59 votos a favor y siete en contra, reglamenta la preservación de los bosques en relación a las actividades económicas que utilizan el suelo y los recursos naturales.

Se modifica así el Código Forestal vigente desde 1965, convirtiéndolo no en una “ley ambiental, sino en una ley más de uso agropecuario del suelo”, lamentó en un comunicado la organización Greenpeace.

El texto “tiene tres problemas: estimula la deforestación, amnistía delitos del pasado y disminuye la protección de las selvas todavía en pie”, resumió para IPS el coordinador de la campaña de Amazonia de Greenpeace Brasil, Márcio Astrini.

El punto más polémico es el que amnistía a los propietarios que hayan deforestado las  áreas de preservación permanente (APP) hasta 2008, si bien para evitar las multas el responsable tendrá que recuperar parte de lo talado y registrar su propiedad para futuras fiscalizaciones. En Brasil hay unos cinco millones de propiedades rurales.

Según al actual Código Forestal, las APP son aquellas que, “cubiertas o no por vegetación nativa, (tienen la) función de preservar los recursos hídricos, el paisaje, la estabilidad geológica, la biodiversidad, el flujo genético de fauna y flora, proteger el suelo y asegurar el bienestar de las poblaciones humanas”. Por ejemplo, las márgenes y nacientes de ríos y las cumbres y laderas de cerros.

De acuerdo con el Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF) la superficie de las APP sujetas a indulto suma 79 millones de hectáreas, equivalentes a los territorios combinados de Alemania, Austria e Italia.

“Será una tragedia para Brasil y para el mundo si ahora el país da la espalda a más de una década de conquista y vuelve al tiempo de las tinieblas de la deforestación catastrófica”, advirtió WWF en un comunicado.

El nuevo texto mantiene porcentajes de protección de la reserva legal, una zona “ubicada dentro de una propiedad o posesión rural, con excepción de la APP, necesaria para el uso sustentable de los recursos naturales”, según el código vigente.

En la Amazonia legal –delimitación política que incluye los estados parcial o totalmente cubiertos por ese bioma– la proporción de reserva legal en los predios agrarios en zonas selváticas es de 80 por ciento.

Si la propiedad se encuentra en zonas de sabana tropical de la Amazonia legal, la reserva es de 35 por ciento, y de 20 por ciento en el resto del país.

El proyecto, que debe volver a la cámara baja y después ser sancionado por Rousseff, exime de la reforestación a todos los predios de entre 20 y 400 hectáreas, según la región.

Si la propiedad se encuentra en estados amazónicos con más de 65 por ciento de su territorio ocupado por tierras indígenas o por unidades de conservación –parques naturales, áreas protegidas, etcétera– la superficie que debe preservar el productor disminuye de 80 a 50 por ciento.

“La legislación ambiental de Brasil era considerada como una de las más avanzadas. Esta alteración del Código Forestal destruye totalmente esta noción”, dijo a IPS la abogada ambientalista Rachel Biderman, consultora senior en Brasil del World Resources Institute.

“Este momento en que Brasil vive un gran crecimiento económico es acompañado por la banalización y debilitamiento de la legislación ambiental”, añadió.

El gobierno, que intentó mejorar algunos puntos aprobados previamente en la cámara baja, considera que el proyecto no es ideal pero es “el mejor posible”.

El senador Jorge Viana, del gobernante Partido de los Trabajadores y relator del proyecto, estimó que se cumple la misión de dar tranquilidad a los brasileños que necesitan tanto de alimento como de preservación ambiental.

“No conozco actividad como la agrícola que necesite más del ambiente para crear y producir. Así que no tiene sentido este enfrentamiento entre ruralistas y ambientalistas”, opinó.

Las autoridades creen que con controles más estrictos, ya en marcha, se conseguirán restaurar 24 millones de hectáreas deforestadas en reservas legales o APP.

Adriana Ramos, secretaria ejecutiva adjunta del Instituto Socioambiental, sostuvo que la ley “permite actividades agropecuarias en áreas críticas que en cambio tendrían que ser recuperadas”. Se trata de  un “mal proyecto” que “refuerza la cultura de la impunidad”, dijo a IPS.

Brasil es uno de los principales productores de alimentos, y es el primer exportador mundial de carne vacuna, café y jugo de naranjas. También es un gran productor de soja y maíz.

Para los representantes del agronegocio, como la senadora Katia Abreu del Partido Social Democrático, empresaria ganadera y presidenta de la Confederación Nacional de Agricultura y Pecuaria, se “pone fin a años de dictadura ambiental”.

El lunes 5, el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales (INPE) reveló que la deforestación amazónica sigue cayendo. La registrada entre agosto de 2010  y julio de 2011 fue de 6.238 kilómetros cuadrados, 11 por ciento menor a la del período 2009-2010.

Es, además, la menor tala registrada desde que el INPE inició estos controles satelitales, en 1988. Por entonces, la deforestación era de 29.000 kilómetros cuadrados por año.

Por eso Abreu insistió en que es posible compatibilizar la producción de alimentos con la preservación de la selva.

Pero esto no convence a los ambientalistas.

“Brasil pierde la oportunidad” de construir “un código de desarrollo sostenible” basado en prácticas modernas “como el pago por servicios ambientales y promoción de sistemas agroforestales sostenibles, con apoyo y desarrollo de comunidades locales”, opinó Biderman.

Astrini apuntó que el país podría incumplir tratados ambientales internacionales y socavar los esfuerzos para frenar el cambio climático.

Las organizaciones que integran el Comité de la Floresta se movilizarán para exigir un veto de la presidenta Rousseff. “Le cobraremos el compromiso que hizo por escrito de que no aceptaría un texto que tuviese amnistía y promoviera más deforestación”, recordó Astrini.

Este país adoptó la meta de reducir sus emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero entre 36 y 39 por ciento para 2020, dependiendo del crecimiento del producto interno bruto, para lo cual necesita disminuir en 80 por ciento la deforestación amazónica respecto del período 1996-2005.

Brasil es el sexto mayor emisor de gases invernadero en el mundo. Y la principal fuente es la pérdida de su selva tropical, causada en gran medida por la expansión agropecuaria. (FIN)

Para Ban, se necesita una combinación de recursos públicos y privados para combatir el cambio climático. Kristin Palitza/IPS

Por Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 7 dic (IPS) – Fijar un precio a las emisiones de dióxido de carbono (CO2) en todo el mundo es la clave para nutrir el Fondo Verde para el Clima (FVC), que financiará proyectos de adaptación al recalentamiento planetario en los países del Sur.

A esta conclusión llegó el primer ministro de Noruega, Jens Stoltenberg, quien preside el grupo asesor de alto nivel de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) sobre financiamiento contra el cambio climático.

“Si puedes crear una amplia y más completa financiación del carbono, se podrán atraer más fondos privados”, explicó.

Se habla de “financiamiento del carbono” cuando se establece un precio a las emisiones de CO2 u otros gases invernadero, causantes del recalentamiento del planeta.

Según Stoltenberg, fijar un valor al dióxido de carbono tendría tres beneficios fundamentales:  estimularía a la industria a reducir las liberaciones de gases contaminantes, contribuirá al desarrollo de tecnologías limpias para recortar emisiones y generaría ingresos, que podrían ser utilizados con fines
gubernamentales pero también en acciones climáticas.

Ya varios países demostraron que los sistemas de comercio de carbono o los impuestos a las emisiones pueden ayudar a reducir la contaminación, a la vez que promueven el crecimiento económico, dijo Stoltenberg.

“La Unión Europea cuenta con un completo sistema de comercio de carbono y un régimen de emisiones. Australia acaba de crear un impuesto al carbono. China está fijando precios al carbono, y Sudáfrica también quiere desarrollar un gravamen”, indicó.

“Lo bueno de fijar un precio es que logra menos contaminación y más financiamiento”, añadió.

En los últimos 10 días de la 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17), que se desarrolla hasta este viernes 9 en la oriental ciudad sudafricana de Durban, el tema de cómo obtener recursos para el FVC fue el protagonista.

La crisis global y las medidas nacionales de austeridad han reducido la disposición de los países ricos a comprometerse a llenar los cofres del fondo con dineros públicos.

“Las crisis financiera y de deuda, especialmente en Europa y en Estados Unidos, se han agravado. Por tanto, debemos procurar tanto financiamiento público como de fuentes privadas”, subrayó Stoltenberg quien, como co-presidente del grupo asesor, presentó a la ONU un análisis proponiendo medidas para generar financiamiento a largo plazo.

“Nuestra primera conclusión es que constituye un reto, pero es viable movilizar 100.000 millones de dólares al año”, dijo.

Stoltenberg aludía un acuerdo alcanzado en la COP 16, celebrada en la sudoriental ciudad mexicana de Cancún el año pasado, según el cual la financiación por vía rápida de 10 millones de dólares anuales entre 2010 y 2013 debía ser incrementada a 100.000 millones anuales para 2020.

“No tiene ningún sentido tener un fondo si no cuentas con dinero para él”, señaló.

Por su parte, el secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, coincidió en que las metas de financiamiento de corto y largo plazo solo podrían alcanzarse a través de una combinación de recursos públicos y privados. Esto no significa que los gobiernos pierdan control político sobre los mecanismos de
financiamiento del FVC, algo en lo que los países expresaban preocupación.

“Hay una variedad de posibles opciones de financiamiento, como los impuestos al carbono, al transporte, etcétera. Dependerá de cada país decidir qué regulaciones quiere implementar a nivel nacional”, indicó Ban.

Sin embargo, no exoneró a los gobiernos del Norte.

“Los países industrializados deben mostrar liderazgo inyectando suficiente capital de inmediato”, afirmó. “Es verdad que los gobiernos luchan con crisis, pero el cambio climático no es una opción, es un imperativo. Necesita un compromiso político unívoco y transparente”, subrayó.

No habrá avance en la lucha contra el cambio climático sin más financiamiento, dijo por su parte el primer ministro de Etiopía, Meles Zenawi.

“Necesitamos crear una estructura de precios que atraiga al sector privado para invertir en el financiamiento del clima. Fijar precios al carbono enviará una señal al sector privado indicando que la tecnología verde es redituable”, opinó Zenawi.

“La tecnología del futuro es verde. Hay una carrera. El que llega tarde quedará rezagado”, añadió.

No obstante, expertos económicos dudan que los países industrializados tengan un verdadero interés en proveer fondos para la adaptación en el Sur.

“No necesitamos más informes, necesitamos voluntad política”, dijo el economista Nicholas Stern, consejero del gobierno de Gran Bretaña.

Cuando más rápido actúen los políticos, más barato les costará, coincidió el presidente de México, Felipe Calderón, presionando para que el FVC comience a funcionar antes de que termine la reunión en Durban.

“Una economía baja en carbono no sale barato. Costará cientos de millones de dólares al año, dependiendo de cuán rápido actuemos. Lo más pronto actuemos, menos nos costará”, indicó.

Caio Koch-Weser, vicepresidente del Deutsche Bank, uno de los grupos bancarios más grandes del mundo, expresó su preocupación sobre el lento progreso para la creación del FVC. La industria esta dispuesta a invertir en una economía verde, aseguró.

“Dennos un precio para el carbono, dennos una política confiable y el sector privado hará la mayor parte del trabajo. Ya hemos visto una gran vibración de parte de la comunidad empresarial en interacción con los gobiernos”, dijo. “Por supuesto, todavía no a la escala y velocidad que necesitamos”.

Koch-Weser además señaló que la actual crisis económica mundial presentaba una oportunidad para que los gobiernos y negocios se transformaran y encontraran nuevos motores de crecimiento.

Para poder recolectar 100.000 millones de dólares al año para 2020, con el fin de financiar la adaptación al cambio climático, “necesitamos nuevas asociaciones público-privadas que proveen marcos transparentes, seguros y de larga vida”, dijo Koch-Weser. (FIN)

Credit: Tinus de Jager/IPS

By Stephen Leahy

Civil society said negotiations are going backwards with no nation willing to step up and lead the way forward here at the United Nations climate change conference Wednesday.

“No-one is a champion here. Who will step forward and call the other countries’ bluffs?” asked Tove Ryding of Greenpeace International.

Without that champion stepping forward in the next two and half days, “the world is heading to four degrees Celsius of warming while countries are playing a game of poker,” said Ryding.

“We are going backwards here. The EU put out a new mandate today that suggest a 10 year delay for increasing emissions reductions,” said Bobby Peek of Friends of the Earth South Africa.

“Corporate power is in charge here. Governments must act for the benefit of their people,” said Peek.

“There is still time to break the deadlock but need clear commitments from the members,” said Srinivas Krishnaswamy of the Climate Action Network – South Asia.

Big decisions at previous meetings were often made in the final hours, he noted.

China has made an “unprecedented” proposal to agree to binding commitments but the US and European Union are pretending this is nothing new, said Samantha Smith of WWF International.

China, as well other large developing nations, are waiting for the US and other developed countries to fulfill their promises made in the Bali (2008) and Copenhagen (2009) climate talks, Smith said.

But even those aren’t good enough to ensure less than two degrees of warming. Greater emissions cuts are needed from the developed that current pledges. “The climate can’t wait for that in 2020 as the US suggests.”

(Ends)

A secretária-executiva da CMNUCC, Christiana Figueres, na conferência de Durban. Crédito: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Durban, África do Sul, 7/12/2011, (IPS) – Com a cúpula das Nações Unidas sobre o clima entrando em sua reta final nesta cidade, só Estados Unidos surgem como maior obstáculo para se conseguir um novo regime climático internacional.

“A postura norte-americana pode nos levar a um aquecimento de 3ºC a 4ºC, que será devastador para os pobres do mundo”, disse a ativista Celine Charveriat, da Oxfam International. “Propõem uma década morta sem novas metas para reduzir as emissões até depois de 2020”, afirmou.

Na 15º Conferência das Partes (COP 15) da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre à Mudança Climática (CMNUCC), realizada em 2009 em Copenhague, a delegação norte-americana prometeu uma redução nas emissões desse país dos gases-estufa de 17% entre 2005 e 2020. Isto está muito longe do que se reconhece como necessário para controlar a mudança climática: redução das emissões entre 25% e 40% em relação aos volumes emitidos em 1990 pelos Estados Unidos e por todas as demais nações ricas.

A ciência reitera que a contaminação climática – os gases-estufa liberados por atividades humanas como desmatamento, agricultura, transporte e indústria – deve atingir seu ponto mais alto em meados desta década e depois começar a cair ano a ano. Entretanto, o negociador norte-americano, Jonathan Pershing, insiste que o compromisso de Copenhague é suficiente até 2020.

“Dessa forma não evitaremos uma mudança climática desastrosa”, disse o diretor-geral do Fundo Mundial para a Natureza (WWF), Jim Leape. Com o atual aumento da temperatura média mundial de apenas 0,8 grau em relação à era pré-industrial, os próprios Estados Unidos sofreram este ano perdas sem precedentes devido às severas condições climáticas em seu território, disse Leape. Se Washington “não moderar essa postura, deveria afastar-se” das negociações, acrescentou.

Para o diretor-executivo do Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo, “os delegados devem ouvir seus povos e não alguns interesses corporativos”. O governo de Barack Obama está traindo o povo norte-americano e os municípios e as empresas que estão adotando ações sérias para reduzir suas emissões, acrescentou.

Um delegado do bloco de Países Menos Adiantados, Pa Ousman Jarju, de Gâmbia, reclamou que Washington dê um passo atrás e deixe de bloquear as conversações da COP 17, que começaram dia 28 de novembro e terminarão no dia 9, e que ontem entraram em seus segmentos de alto nível. Jarju reiterou o compromisso do mundo em desenvolvimento com um segundo período de Protocolo de Kyoto, que expirará em 2012 e que estabelece obrigações para todas as nações ricas (exceto os Estados Unidos) no sentido de abaterem suas emissões de gases-estufa em 5,2% em relação aos níveis de 1990.

As emissões do Canadá são quase 30% maiores do que as de 1990, e o governo desse país já anunciou que não vai aderir a uma segunda fase de obrigações. Japão e Rússia tampouco estão dispostos. Assim, o Protocolo de Kyoto regularia somente um quarto das atuais emissões globais.

Havia rumores de que o Protocolo adotado na cidade japonesa de Kyoto em 1997 encontraria a morte em Durban, mas a secretária-executiva da CMNUCC, Christiana Figueres, desmentiu isso. Naidoo admitiu que o Protocolo não está morto, mas estará “em terapia intensiva nos próximos dois anos” de novas negociações. Para Jarju, além de Kyoto, é crucial o encaminhamento paralelo de discussões para regulamentar e reduzir os outros 75% da contaminação climática.

É neste encaminhamento que Washington se mostra reticente em ir além do que prometeu em Copenhague, porque a China, principal emissor mundial de dióxido de carbono, até agora se negava a assumir reduções obrigatórias. Contudo, pela primeira vez, Pequim disse que aceitaria adotar esse compromisso a partir de 2020, uma mudança que Figueres considera “muito positiva” e que faz parte dos avanços que ela espera que aumentem com a chegada dos ministros a Durban.

Além da China, outras duas grandes potências emergentes, Brasil e África do Sul, mostraram sua vontade de aderir a reduções obrigatórias a partir de 2020. A Índia é o único país do grupo Basic (que forma com Brasil, África do Sul e China) que continua se negando a isso.

A outra grande questão é a implantação do Fundo Verde para o Clima, que deve oferecer US$ 100 bilhões por ano para financiar a adaptação dos países em desenvolvimento à mudança climática, mas está paralisado porque não há acordo sobre sua estrutura e seu funcionamento, embora o mais complicado seja saber de onde virá o dinheiro.

Por outro lado, há modestos avanços nas conversações para reduzir o desmatamento, uma grande fonte de gases-estufa. A negociação do programa de Redução de Emissões Provocadas por Desmatamento e Degradação das Florestas (REDD+) centra-se em assuntos complexos, como a verificação das reduções, enquanto a questão de como financiar estes planos ficou adiada até a COP 18, que acontecerá no próximo ano no Catar. Envolverde/IPS (FIN/2011)

A falta de acesso a água requer uma solução urgente na África austral. Crédito: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Durban, África do Sul, 7/12/2011, (IPS) – Ganham força os esforços para que a água seja incluída como capítulo com peso próprio nas negociações internacionais sobre a mudança climática, que acontecem até o dia 9 nesta cidade.

Segundo especialistas em temas hídricos, dessa forma se conseguiria maior ênfase no desenvolvimento de políticas e na atração de recursos para este setor mediante programas de adaptação.

“A primeira coisa que cada um de nós usa ao se levantar pela manhã é água, e também quando vai para a cama. De todo modo, é dada como certa”, disse Chris Moseki, gerente de pesquisa na sul-africana Comissão de Pesquisa da Água, que integra a sociedade Mundial para a Água.

A falta de água é um problema grave na África austral, onde afeta quase cem milhões de pessoas. A região ficará mais quente e mais seca nos próximos 50 a cem anos, o que colocará em risco o fornecimento hídrico de estabelecimentos agrícolas, industriais e famílias, além de ameaçar os ecossistemas, indicam modelos traçados pelo Conselho de Pesquisa Científica e Industrial, da África do Sul.

Especialistas e políticos preocupam-se com o fato de o planejamento sobre mudanças na disponibilidade de água não estar recebendo o destaque que merece. O secretário-executivo do Conselho de Ministros Africanos sobre a Água, Bai-Mass Taal, disse que o grupo trabalha para elevar o perfil dos temas hídricos na 17ª Conferência das Partes (COP 17) da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre Mudança Climática, que acontece nesta cidade sul-africana.

“Dizemos às partes: apreciamos o que estão fazendo em outros setores, mas, sem abordar os temas hídricos diretamente, tudo isso será em vão”, advertiu Taal. No momento, os assuntos relativos à água são discutidos como parte do planejamento, da adoção de prioridades e implantação da adaptação a um clima mutante.

Enquanto se espera que cada vez mais países sofram escassez hídrica, a atual posição da água nas conversações climáticas é inadequada, disse a secretária-executiva da Associação Mundial para a Água, Ania Grobicki. “O produto interno bruto de muitos países menos adiantados depende da água. Mais de 50% dos alimentos do mundo procederão da África no futuro, e isto depende da disponibilidade de água. É por esta razão que este debate deveria ir mais além”, afirmou.

Mais de 70% da população da Comunidade para o Desenvolvimento da África Austral depende diretamente da agricultura, principalmente da obtida apenas com água de chuva. As projeções do Conselho de Pesquisa Científica e Industrial estão entre as muitas que chamam a atenção para o efeito que terão sobre a população africana as mudanças previstas nos padrões de chuvas, os limitados recursos destinados à adaptação e a falta de instituições para regular o aproveitamento dos rios.

Desafios similares são previstos para o resto do mundo, mas a falta de irrigação e de infraestrutura geral na África é um fator que multiplica a necessidade de uma intervenção urgente. Ao mudarem os padrões das chuvas, a África enfrenta crises importantes. Em 2010, milhões foram vítimas da fome em Níger e Mali devido a uma seca que afetou os produtores agropecuários. Este ano, o Chifre da África enfrenta sua pior seca em 50 anos, e milhões sofrem fome por esse motivo. Segundo o Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA) da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), cerca de 12,3 milhões de pessoas necessitam de assistência de emergência nessa região.

A comissária da União Africana para a Economia Rural e a Agricultura, Rhoda Peace, disse que, quando os líderes do continente falam sobre a mudança climática, invariavelmente se referem a secas e inundações, o que mostra que a água já é uma prioridade. Em 2008, os chefes de Estado africanos resolveram colocar a água e o saneamento como prioridade continental.

“Os governantes acordaram destinar pelo menos 0,5% de seu orçamento nacional para a água”, disse Peace. “Que este seja realmente o caso é outra história, mas alguns países estão indo muito bem e podem conseguir seus objetivos”, acrescentou. Brindar um acesso adequado a água em toda a África custará milhares de milhões de dólares. E, para os muitos governos africanos que não honram compromissos anteriores, não será possível arrecadar as somas necessárias sem apoio.

O coordenador para a África oriental da Associação Mundial para a Água, Simon Thuo, declarou estar surpreso pelo fato de inclusive as propostas do grupo de negociadores africanos mencionarem a água apenas superficialmente. Como outros especialistas, Thuo acredita que, mesmo se as negociações climáticas abordarem de maneira específica a administração desse elemento essencial, não receberá a atenção nem o financiamento necessários. Envolverde/IPS (FIN/2011)

Dorah Marema, coordinator of Gender and Climate Change in Southern Africa. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

And those in rural areas, who depend on agriculture for survival, will be even worse off.

Dorah Marema, coordinator of Gender and Climate Change in Southern Africa, a network of gender civil society organisations, activists, and experts spoke to IPS about the importance of highlighting gender at the climate negations at the 17^th Conference of Parties (COP17) in Durban.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: Do you find that enough attention is being paid to gender issues at this year’s climate change negotiations?

A: Well there has definitely been a shift when we consider how gender issues have been considered in the previous COP’s. At this COP there is a lot of motioning of gender issues, there are over thirty side events focusing on women and climate change. Whether this indicates a substantive positive change we don’t know, so we are unable to evaluate whether they are making an impact.

Q: You advocate for climate justice as gender justice. Can you explain why you want to separate gender from the mainstream conversation and place it as a top priority on the climate change agenda?

A: When we talk about climate change and the issue of justice we talk about the global South being impacted the most. We then zoom in and say that Africa will be the worst affected in the South, simply because it is a poor continent.

…Although climate change will affect all countries, its impacts will be differently distributed among various regions, generations, age and income groups, occupations and genders. The poor, the majority of whom are women, will be disproportionately affected.

Over the past decade, the relationship between climate change and poverty in countries where people’s livelihoods depend on natural resources and environmental services has increasingly become a developmental issue.

This relationship between climate change and people’s livelihoods is seen to have strong linkages to poverty. To this nexus is an added strong gender component, which if ignored could lead to inappropriate policy measures and increased poverty, especially amongst the disadvantaged, poor population.

We say that women are poor in those nations and we say that women are the majority of the poor and we know that they are very reliant on natural resources.

They are also the food producers who are very reliant on agriculture. Those two things, including water (scarcity), mean that they are vulnerable because they are dependent on rain, and they are dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

Q: What sort of recourse are you looking for for women and how do you think they can be better empowered to adapt to climate change?

A: One example that I can give is that now there is the conversation around finance, the Green Climate Fund. What we are asking for is direct access to the funds.

(We want access) not just for countries, but also for organisations with projects that work with empowering women. They need that money so that they can implement adaptation and mitigation projects.

Also in terms of mitigation we need to consider the gender issues there. There are a lot of high-tech mitigation projects, which are not talking about empowering women.

So what we are doing is advocating for jobs that are decentralised so that women would be able to benefit by getting jobs. (END)