Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development Erik Solheim. Credit: Rajiv Fernando/IPS

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Norway is the world’s third largest donor in terms of development aid as a percentage of GDP. Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development Erik Solheim spoke to IPS about the initiatives promoted by his country on environmental protection and its role during the Copenhagen negotiations.

Like most participants in the CoP15, Solheim declared himself not very optimistic about the fate of the talks, speaking to TerraViva on Thursday night, with just one day of negotiations remaining. Continue Reading

La agropecuaria será el sector más afectado por el calentamiento. Crédito: Sociedad de Criadores de Hereford del Uruguay

Por Daniela Estrada – Tierramérica *

COPENHAGUE (Tierramérica) América Latina debería aprovechar el tiempo de que dispone para buscar un nuevo modelo de producción, consumo y distribución adaptado a las realidades del cambio climático. Pero sin un acuerdo mundial para reducir las emisiones contaminantes, para 2100 podría perder casi 137 por ciento de su producto interno bruto (PIB).

Esa es la conclusión del estudio “La economía del cambio climático en América Latina y el Caribe”, presentado el miércoles por la Cepal en la COP-15, que se desarrolla hasta este viernes en la capital danesa. Continue Reading

Imagen del libro "A Vulnerabilidade do Ser", cortesía de Claudia Andujar

Por Marina Barbosa *

COPENHAGUE (Tierramérica) En la mitología de los baniwas, yanomamis y  desanas, etnias que habitan el noroeste del estado brasileño de Amazonas fronterizo con Colombia y Venezuela, se encuentran explicaciones y advertencias sobre el cambio climático.

Según André  Baniwa, viceintendente del municipio de São Gabriel da Cachoeira, los efectos del clima ya fueron previstos por hombres de grandes poderes. Continue Reading

Kumi Naidoo. Credit: Claudia Ciobanu/IPS

Claudia Ciobanu interviews Kumi Naidoo, head of Greenpeace International

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) “Climate change is an opportunity to deal with all the issues of equity and justice that we have been struggling for all along,” said Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International in an interview with IPS on Thursday in Copenhagen.

“And perhaps this is why there is such resistance from rich countries: they know that if they do the right thing in Copenhagen, they have to begin to share economic power and to have a more equitable trading system because all of those things have to follow, otherwise you cannot deal with climate change.” Continue Reading

Meles Zenawi. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch

By Servaas van den Bosch

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TERRA VIVA) – An announcement by Ethiopia and France yesterday caused consternation among the African countries. Is someone trying to break their ranks to get the continent to sign on to a poor deal, they are asking themselves?

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is not a happy man. His head slumped in his hands, the triumphs of Ethiopian agriculture, presented at a side event of the COP, seem to escape him completely. Continue Reading

Mithika Mwenda. Credit: Nasseem Ackburally/IPS

Nasseem Ackburally

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi was chosen by African leaders to champion a united African position.

But Zenawi has provoked outrage from campaigners by issuing a joint statement with French president Nicholas Sarkozy that falls well short of the Africa Group’s demands for emissions cuts or long-term financial commitments to support mitigation, adaptation and other  measures in the developing world. Continue Reading

By Joshua Kyalimpa

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Adequate long-term funding will be vital if a meaningful climate deal is to be clinched at the ongoing UN climate change talks.

Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International says as much as $200 billion a year is needed to fund responses to climate change. He is concerned that with only two days to the close of the negotiations, developed countries have only committed to ten billion dollars in short-term financing over the next three years. Continue Reading

Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, at the Mayor's Summit. Credit: Stephen Leahy/TerraViva

By Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) On its current carbon emissions path, humanity faces a 50-percent chance of warming the planet a whopping 5.0 degrees C by the end of this century, warned Nicholas Stern, an economist who is chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.

“Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to move. It will be the most severe global conflict in human history. That is what the science is telling us,” said Stern, author of the well-known Stern Review, the 2006 report that documented the effect of global warming on the world economy.

Humanity’s other option is to embrace a new energy revolution unlike anything ever seen. Continue Reading

Mithika Mwenda: 'This is going to create dissent, and then those who are bent on dividing Africa will succeed.' Credit: Nasseem Ackburally/IPS

Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi was chosen by African leaders to champion a united African position.
But Zenawi has provoked outrage from campaigners by issuing a joint statement with the French president Nicholas Sarkozy that falls well short of the Africa Group’s demands for emissions cuts or  long-term financial commitments to support mitigation, adaptation and other  measures in the developing world.
Nasseem Ackburally interviewed one of those most disappointed by Zenawi’s action, Mithika Mwenda, from the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance.

Farmers from across Africa share their stories on how climate changes have changed their lives for the worst during Pan African Climate hearings held in Cape Town, South Africa.

Analysis by Darryl D’Monte

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Much of the discussion in Copenhagen has revolved around targets and deadlines for cutting carbon emissions. But a weekend seminar in the idyllic Danish island of Samsoe, titled “Future Energy,” helped journalists locate the problem in the context of the world’s biggest emitters.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) drew out future scenarios, assuming that all these countries did not exceed 450ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide, which is considered the cap to prevent irretrievable climate change. Many developing countries believe 350ppm is a safer option. Continue Reading

Edouard Yao: "Après Copenhague, c’est une bataille qui débutera, un défi qu’il faudra relever." Credit: Fulgence Zamblé/IPS

Fulgence Zamblé s’entretient avec EDOUARD YAO, coordinateur de Côte d’Ivoire

ABIDJAN (IPS/TerraViva) - En dépit d’une marche de mobilisation contre les changements climatiques avortée dans la capitale économique ivoirienne, Abidjan, pour des raisons d’organisation, Edouard Yao, coordinateur Côte d’Ivoire de l’organisation non gouvernementale LEAD Africa, ne démord pas.

Pour lui, les populations africaines ont besoin d’être largement informées sur la question climatique. Ce pourquoi, depuis l’ouverture des négociations de Copenhague, au Danemark, l’organisation dont il est le coordinateur organise dans cinq villes africaines des séances de visualisation en direct de Copenhague, suivies d’exposés et de débats en ligne et hors ligne. Continue Reading

“Don’t buy the lie”. Credit: Courtesy of Cindy Snodgrass

by Servaas van den Bosch*

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – “Three years of gathering support have come down to three days of negotiating,” says U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, calling on developed nations to quickly set further emissions reduction targets.

“But developing nations should also slow the growth of their emissions,” he urged delegates at the start of the High Level Meeting. “The time for consensus has arrived. No one will get what they want in these negotiations but everyone can get what they need.” Continue Reading