Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

By Diana Cariboni

MONTEVIDEO (IPS/TerraViva) – The sensation that Copenhagen today reflects humanity’s diversity is powerful: more than 15,000 people have flocked to the Danish capital to talk about climate change. In the front line are the ambassadors, politicians, negotiators and technocrats.

Then there are the international bureaucrats, corporate lobbyists, conservationists and nature lovers. Continue Reading

Copenhagen ice bear. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

By Servaas van den Bosch

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) “Come touch a piece of the Arctic, disappearing before your eyes. What have you got to lose?” asks the WWF in downtown Copenhagen, where a gigantic polar bear sculpted out of ice is slowly melting.

“Just like the scientists at the climate meet, I have no idea how long it will take for the polar bear to completely disappear,” says sculptor Mark Coreth from the UK. In the case of this particular nine tonne specimen, it doesn’t look good. Ice water is steadily dripping down, forming a pool under its body, and the once fierce head has morphed into an unrecognisable mass. Continue Reading

Adrianne Appel

BOSTON (IPS/TerraViva) As the U.S. climate delegation arrives in Copenhagen nearly empty-handed, watchdog groups back at home say they know why: a political system gone astray due to the influence of huge amounts of corporate cash. Continue Reading

Yvo de Boer and John Ashe. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch

By Servaas van den Bosch

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Take the concerns of the South seriously and bring an ambitious amount of money and emission cuts to the negotiating table, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer told industrialised nations on the eve of the biggest climate meeting the world has ever seen.

With over 15,000 people from 192 countries descending on Copenhagen to discuss a climate deal under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), De Boer and colleagues walk a fine line of tempering expectations, while not dismissing the possibility of a historic agreement altogether. Continue Reading

By Stephen Leahy

Youth delegates visited schools to talk about climate change issues. Credit: Children's Climate ForumBy Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGEN, (IPS/TerraViva) Young people from 44 countries are demanding that world leaders take decisive action on climate change. The time for talk is over, they declared at the end of a weeklong Children’s Climate Forum here.

“Our plates are empty due to drought. Our future is at risk, and we demand that something be done,” they wrote in a declaration titled “Our World, Our Future” signed by 164 participants aged 14 to 17 at the conclusion of the forum.

“I don’t want my future compromised by inaction on climate,” said Bipra Biswambhara, 16, of India.

Biswambhara and many of her fellow delegates were “shocked to learn how many people and parts of the world are already affected by climate change”, she told TerraViva. “We youth are committed to taking action in our home communities,” she said. Continue Reading

Mutsuko Murakami interviews MASAHIRO KAWAI, Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute

Masahiro Kawai, Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute

No less concerned about the issue of climate change and the results of the Copenhagen talks is Asia, whose cities are among the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Government officials, environmentalists, scholars, and other concerned sectors of society have been engaged in vigorous discussions on how to deal with this environmental bane.

The Tokyo-based Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)—a development think tank under the multilateral finance institution headquartered in Manila—is one of the organisations that have been on the forefront of such discussions. Continue Reading