Crédito: Fabricio Vanden Broeck

Por Mario Osava

RÍO DE JANEIRO (IPS/TerraViva)  “El archipiélago de Japón se hundirá dentro de un año”. El anuncio oficial se produjo tras una violenta erupción del monte Fuji, y luego se multiplicaron los terremotos por todo el país, desafiando al mundo a acoger a 110 millones de personas en pocos meses.

Una furiosa batalla diplomática logró una dubitativa solidaridad para evacuar a 65 millones de japoneses. Veinte millones se hundieron con las islas, muchos de ellos voluntariamente, por amor a la Patria o para ceder lugar en la fuga a los más jóvenes. Los demás, se supone, murieron antes, víctimas de temblores, tsunamis y otros cataclismos. Continue Reading

Claudius

By Claudia Ciobanu

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – An internal note from the UN Secretariat dated December 15 states that the current emission reduction pledges made by Annex 1 countries and the voluntary actions and policy goals announced by non-Annex 1 states “could lead to concentrations equal or above 550 ppm with the related temperature raise around 3 degrees.”

The UN note was leaked to some media and NGOs on Thursday evening, further emphasising the deadlock in negotiations. Continue Reading

Adriana Marquisio and Maude Barlow at the Klimaforum09. Credit:Stephen Leahy/IPS

Stephen Leahy* – Tierramérica

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Similar market-based solutions will be used to “solve” the growing water crisis, warned experts at the Klimaforum09, a parallel meeting a few kilometres away from the official COP15 talks. Continue Reading

Activists inside the Bella Centre on Dec. 16, 2009. Credit: A. Libisch/TerraViva

By Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Canada bears a large share of responsibility for any failure to make a breakthrough in reducing greenhouse gas emissions here in Copenhagen, say participants and civil society activists.

Canada is the only country to ignore its international obligations under the previous Kyoto climate treaty. It has blocked all attempts to get a new treaty to significantly cut carbon emissions, the activists and delegates from other countries charge.

“Canada is the dinosaur at these talks,” said Canadian David Cadman, president of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, an international association of local governments that hosted this week’s Mayor’s Conference on climate change here. Continue Reading

Nancy Pelosi with colleagues Ed Markey (left) and Steny Hoyer. Credit: Raúl Pierri/IPS

Raúl Pierri

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – With only one day to go to the end of the climate change talks and no agreement in sight, it looks like it will ultimately be up to national legislators to effectively implement whatever agreement is forged here in the Danish capital.

That is the view taken at the COP15 by representatives of GLOBE (Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment) International. Continue Reading

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

Nancy Pelosi junto a sus colegas y correligionarios Ed Markey (izquierda) y Steny Hoyer. Crédito Raúl Pierri/IPS

Por Raúl Pierri

COPENHAGUE (IPS/TerraViva) Todavía no hay acuerdo en la COP-15, pero en caso de que se geste uno en la capital danesa, serán los parlamentos nacionales los que tendrán la responsabilidad última de hacerlo efectivo.

Así lo subrayaron en la COP-15 (15 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático) representantes de la Organización Global de Legisladores para el Equilibrio Ambiental (Globe). 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

An activist from Arabs Against Oil. Credit: Claudia Ciobanu/IPS

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – In outlining a position on climate change, the League of Arab States must somehow account for looming problems like water stress – a problem found from Morocco in the west to the Gulf states in the east – and the importance of oil to the economies of many of the league’s members.

Dr Emad Adly, in Copenhagen representing the Arab Network for Environment and Development, says there was a time when countries like Saudi Arabia wouldn’t listen to even a mention of worldwide emissions reductions, for fear it would affect revenues from the sale of fossil fuels. Continue Reading

Ambassador Yu Qingtai. Credit: Embassy of China in the United States

By Rajiv Fernando*

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – China appears to have gained instant celebrity status since the opening days of the United Nations Climate Change Conference here.

The many meetings and press briefings arranged by Chinese officials have been jampacked by all who are excited to see the emerging economic giant of Asia will lead the rest of the developing world during the climate negotiations in the Danish capital. Continue Reading

People's assembly. Credit: TerraViva/IPS

By Rajiv Fernando*

COPENHAGEN (IPS/Terraviva) Negotiators worked through Tuesday night without a positive outcome on providing financing for poor countries, commitments on emission reductions or a legally-enforceable treaty. 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

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