CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: fish and protein access for the poor impacted

Source: AllAfrica
Climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world's fast declining fish stocks, which could affect millions of people who depend on the oceans for food and income, says a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The report, In Dead Water, says climate change may slow down the global flow of ocean currents, which flush and clean the continental shelves and are critical to maintaining water quality, nutrient cycling and the life-cycle patterns of fish and other marine life in more than 75 percent of the world's fishing grounds.
"In developed countries, the degradation of traditional fishing grounds will have commercial effects on the fishing industry sector and fleets," said Stefan Hain of UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre. "The effects in developing countries and SIDS [Small Island Developing States] will be more direct, i.e. on coastal communities and populations, which depend on marine resources for sustenance and livelihoods."
Fifty million people could be at risk by 2080 because of climate change and increasing coastal population densities, according to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) policy brief on the impact of climate change on fisheries. "Projections suggest that these combined pressures could result in reef loss and a decline in fish availability for per capita consumption of approximately 15 percent by 2015."
The high catches that currently allow exports may become a thing of the past, and a high dependence on fish for protein could threaten the health of many thousands as catches shrink
Coastal fishing communities face a double whammy of reduced fisheries resources and increased risks of coastal flooding and storm surges, said the FAO brief, Building adaptive capacity to climate change: Policies to sustain livelihoods and fisheries. "Impacts of climate change are an additional burden to other poverty drivers, such as declining fish stocks, HIV/AIDS, lack of savings, insurance and alternative livelihoods."
The UNEP study, the first of its kind by UNEP scientists, was conducted in collaboration with universities and institutes in Europe and the United States, which found that the number of marine dead zones - oxygen deficient areas - have increased from 149 in 2003 to over 200 in 2006, mostly in coastal waters. These zones are linked with pollution and the projected growth in coastal development, and this number is expected to multiply in a few decades.
Christian Nellemann, editor-in-chief of the UNEP report, pointed out that the "impoverished will take the greatest toll both in terms of reduced food supply, but also breakdown in their economy and their primary opportunity to move out of poverty. This is an emerging catastrophe of an unprecedented scale, and the efforts in the next two decades will determine the lives of hundreds of millions for centuries ahead.
He said West Africa, where several million people live along the coast and the fisheries provide the primary income and food resource, could be among the worst affected by climate change and industrial overfishing - including bottom trawling - combined with coastal pollution. "Here, an increasingly larger portion, often exceeding 80 percent to 90 percent of the fishery harvest, is caught by non-local vessels, such as from the European Union.
The report also found that up to 80 percent of the world's primary fish-catch species are exploited beyond or close to their harvesting capacity: advances in technology, combined with subsidies, mean the world's fishing capacity is 2.5 times bigger than can harvest fisheries sustainably.
Higher sea surface temperatures in the coming decades threaten to bleach and kill up to 80 percent of the globe's coral reefs, which are major tourist attractions, natural sea defences and nurseries for fish.
There is also growing concern that carbon dioxide emissions will increase the acidity of seas and oceans; this in turn may negatively affect calcium- and shell-forming marine life, including corals, but also tiny ones such as planktonic organisms at the base of the food chain.
Impact on poor countries
The FAO paper noted the link between fisheries and poverty reduction. "The sector and its related activities are important for economic output and growth, and employs over 155 million people worldwide - 98 percent from developing countries."
It cited a recent study on the vulnerability of national economies and food systems to climate impacts on fisheries, which found that African countries were most vulnerable to the likely impacts of climate change on fisheries. "This is in spite of over 80 percent of the world's fishers being in south and Southeast Asia, and fish catches being greater in Latin America and Asia."
Climate change will change the distribution, conservation and use of the water of the earth and its atmosphere. African fisheries are particularly at risk because semi-arid countries with significant coastal or inland fisheries have high exposure to future increases in temperature, and the linked changes in rainfall and coastal current systems.
The high catches that currently allow exports may become a thing of the past, and a high dependence on fish for protein could threaten the health of many thousands as catches shrink. Low capacity to adapt to change due to their comparatively small or weak economies and low human development indices could set back development in countries like Angola, Congo, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
In African countries like Ghana, Namibia, Senegal and Uganda, the fisheries sector contributes over six percent of gross domestic product. Rift Valley countries such as Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda, and Asian river-dependent fishery nations, including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Pakistan, are also vulnerable.
Impact on freshwater fisheries
In the short term, climate change is expected to affect freshwater fisheries through changes in water temperature, nutrient levels and lower dry-season water levels. Dry-season flow rates in rivers are predicted to decline in south Asia and in most African river basins, leading to reduced fish yields, according to the FAO.
In the longer term, larger changes in river flows are anticipated as glaciers melt, reducing their capacity to sustain regular and controlled water flows.
Researchers found that lake fisheries have already begun to feel the impact of climatic variability, affecting fish production.
In Lake Chilwa, Malawi, a 'closed-basin' lake, dry periods have become more frequent and fish yields are declining.
In Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, fish yields have dropped because of declining wind speeds and rising water temperatures, which have reduced the mixing of nutrient-rich deep waters with the surface waters that support fish production. This, along with overfishing, may be responsible for the declining fish yields from the lake.
Lake Chad's area fluctuates extensively, but follows a declining trend. In 2005 it occupied only 10 percent of the area it was in 1963, with further decreases predicted in the coming century. Fish catches have not fallen to the same extent, but the overall productive potential of the lake is declining.
Upside of global warming
Snow and glacier melt in the Eurasian mountains, which stretch from the Caucasus Mountains to the Himalayas, may also result in changes in the flows of the Indus, Brahmaputra, Ganges and Mekong, which sustain major river and floodplain fisheries, as well as supply nutrients to coastal seas, the FAO paper said.
"Predictions for consequences of flow regimes are uncertain but increased runoff and discharge rates during this process may boost fish yield through more extensive and prolonged inundation of floodplains. In Bangladesh, a 20 percent to 40 percent increase in flooded areas could raise total annual yields by 60,000 tonnes to 130,000 tonnes.
"These potential gains may be counterbalanced by greater dry-season losses due to lower dry-season flows and greater demands on water resources for irrigation, threatening fish survival and making them more susceptible to capture. Damming for hydropower, irrigation and flood control may also offset any potential fishery gains," the FAO paper noted.
The FAO suggested policy action for mitigation and adaptation such as raising awareness of the impacts of climate change to ensure that the special risks to the fishery sector are understood and used to plan national climate change responses.
Mitigation targets should be set, using mechanisms like the Kyoto Protocol. Mangroves should be restored and coral reefs protected, which will contribute to carbon dioxide absorption, coastal protection, fisheries and livelihoods.
Click here to read the report.

CLIMATE CHANGE and THE POOREST: knee-jerk climate change reactions fuelling starvation

Source: The Guardian (UK)

The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a "new face of hunger".
"We will have a problem in coming months," said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). "We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs."
With voluntary contributions from the world's wealthy nations, the WFP feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world's undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn (£1.5bn). But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries.
The shortfall is all the more worrying as it comes at a time when populations, many in urban areas, who had thought themselves secure in their food supply are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. Afghanistan has recently added an extra 2.5 million people to the number it says are at risk of malnutrition
"This is the new face of hunger," Sheeran said. "There is food on shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas we have not seen before. There are food riots in countries where we have not seen them before."
WFP officials say the extraordinary increases in the global price of basic foods were caused by a "perfect storm" of factors: a rise in demand for animal feed from increasingly prosperous populations in India and China, the use of more land and agricultural produce for biofuels, and climate change.
The impact has been felt around the world. Food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has reintroduced rationing for the first time in two decades. Russia has frozen the price of milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil for six months. Thailand is also planning a freeze on food staples. After protests around Indonesia, Jakarta has increased public food subsidies. India has banned the export of rice except the high-quality basmati variety.
"For us, the main concern is for the poorest countries and the net food buyers," said Frederic Mousseau, a humanitarian policy adviser at Oxfam. "For the poorest populations, 50%-80% of income goes on food purchases. We are concerned now about an immediate increase in malnutrition in these countries, and the landless, the farmworkers there, all those who are living on the edge."
Much of the blame has been put on the transfer of land and grains to the production of biofuel. But its impact has been outweighed by the sharp growth in demand from a new middle class in China and India for meat and other foods, which were previously viewed as luxuries.
"The fundamental cause is high income growth," said Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute. "I estimate this is half the story. The biofuels is another 30%. Then there are weather-induced erratic changes which caused irritation in world food markets. These things have eaten into world levels of grain storage.
"The lower the reserves, the more nervous the markets become, and the increased volatility is particularly detrimental to the poor who have small assets."
The impact of climate change will amplify that already dangerous volatility. Record flooding in west Africa, a prolonged drought in Australia and unusually severe snowstorms in China have all had an impact on food production.
"The climate change factor is so far small but it is bound to get bigger," Von Braun said. "That is the long-term worry and the markets are trying to internalise it."
The WFP is holding an emergency meeting in Rome on Friday, at which its senior managers will meet board members to brief them on the scale of the problem. There will then be a case-by-case assessment of the seriousness of the situation in the affected countries, before the WFP formally asks for an increased budget at its executive board meeting in June.
But the donor countries are also facing higher fuel and transport costs. For the biggest US food aid programme, non-food costs now account for 65% of total programme expenditure.
Global impact: Where inflation bites deepest
1 United States The last time America's grain silos were so empty was in the early seventies, when the Soviet Union bought much of the harvest. Washington is telling the World Food Programme it is facing a 40% increase in food commodity prices compared with last year, and higher fuel bills to transport it, so the US, the biggest single food aid contributor, will radically cut the amount it gives away.
2 Morocco 34 people jailed this month for taking part in riots over food prices.
3 Egypt The world's largest importer of wheat has been hard hit by the global price rises, and most of the increase will be absorbed in increased subsidies. The government has also had to relax the rules on who is eligible for food aid, adding an extra 10.5 million people.
4 Eritrea It could be one of the states hardest hit in Africa because of its reliance on imports. The price rises will hit urban populations not previously thought vulnerable to a lack of food.
5 Zimbabwe With annual inflation of 100,000% and unemployment at 80%, price increases on staples can only worsen the severe food shortages.
6 Yemen Prices of bread and other staples have nearly doubled in the past four months, sparking riots in which at least a dozen people were killed.
7 Russia The government struck a deal with producers last year to freeze the price of milk, eggs, vegetable oil, bread and kefir (a fermented milk drink). The freeze was due to last until the end of January but was extended for another three months.
8 Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has asked the WFP to feed an extra 2.5 million people, who are now in danger of malnutrition as a result of a harsh winter and the effect of high world prices in a country that is heavily dependent on imports.
9 Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf announced this month that Pakistan would be going back to ration cards for the first time since the 1980s, after the sharp increase in the price of staples. These will help the poor (nearly half the population) buy subsidised flour, wheat, sugar, pulses and cooking fat from state-owned outlets.
10 India The government will spend 250bn rupees on food security. India is the world's second biggest wheat producer but bought 5.5m tonnes in 2006, and 1.8m tonnes last year, driving up world prices. It has banned the export of all forms of rice other than luxury basmati.
11 China Unusually severe blizzards have dramatically cut agricultural production and sent prices for food staples soaring. The overall food inflation rate is 18.2%. The cost of pork has increased by more than half. The cost of food was rising fast even before the bad weather moved in, as an increasingly prosperous population began to demand as staples agricultural products previously seen as luxuries. The government has increased taxes and imposed quotas on food exports, while removing duties on food imports.
12 Thailand The government is planning to freeze prices of rice, cooking oil and noodles.
13 Malaysia and the Philippines Malaysia is planning strategic stockpiles of the country's staples. Meanwhile the Philippines has made an unusual plea to Vietnam to guarantee its rice supplies. Imports were previously left to the global market.
14 Indonesia Food price rises have triggered protests and the government has had to increase its food subsidies by over a third to contain public anger.
FAQ: Food prices
Few winners and many losers
What is the problem?
In the three decades to 2005, world food prices fell by about three-quarters in inflation-adjusted terms, according to the Economist food prices index. Since then they have risen by 75%, with much of that coming in the past year. Wheat prices have doubled, while maize, soya and oilseeds are at record highs.
Why are food prices rising?
The booming world economy has driven up prices for all commodities. Changes in diets have also played a big part. Meat consumption in many countries has soared, pushing up demand for the grain needed by cattle. Demand for biofuels has also risen strongly. This year, for example, one third of the US maize crop will go to make biofuels. Moreover, the gradual reform and liberalisation of agricultural subsidy programmes in the US and Europe have reduced the butter and grain mountains of yesteryear by eliminating overproduction.
Who are the winners and losers?
Farmers are the obvious winners, as are poor countries that rely extensively on food exports. But consumers are having to pay more, and the urban poor in many developing states will be hardest hit, as they often spend more than a third of their income on food.
How long are prices likely to be high?
The US department for agriculture says the country's wheat stocks are at their lowest for 50 years and demand will continue to exceed supply this year. There is potential to bring more land into production in countries such as Ukraine, but that could take time. And as all foodstuffs have risen sharply in price there is little incentive for farmers to switch from one crop to another.
What about the EU's common agricultural policy?
High food prices certainly remove the need to subsidise farmers and so there is a chance, say experts, that badly needed reductions in CAP subsidies, which cost European taxpayers dearly, could now be within reach.
Are other commodity prices also rising?
Oil, metals and coal have seen their prices rise strongly as the global economy has expanded rapidly, driving up demand for almost everything,
particularly from emerging economies such as China and India. Some economists think speculation may also play a part. Disappointed by the sub-prime collapse and falling property values in many countries, investors have piled money into commodities.

CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: Monaco hosts Environment Ministers

Although the title shows how the Environment ministers realise they need economic incneitves, approaches and thinking to change environmentally-poor activities, the absence of the finance ministers shows how far they have to go ...

Souce: ENS - "World's Environment Ministers Meet to Mobilize Global Green Economy"

A green economy is emerging worldwide as growing numbers of companies embrace environmental policies and investors pump hundreds of billions into clean technology and renewable energies, finds the 2008 United Nations Environment Programme Year Book.
The Year Book was presented here today at the opening of the largest gathering of environment ministers since the UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia last December.
The ministers, joined by representatives of business, organized labor, science and civil society, are attending UNEP's Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum with the theme "Mobilizing Finance for the Climate Challenge."
"Hundreds of billions of dollars are now flowing into renewable and clean energy technologies and trillions more dollars are waiting in the wings looking to governments for a new and decisive climate regime post 2012 alongside the creative market mechanisms necessary to achieve this," said Achim Steiner, UN under-secretary general and UNEP executive director.
Climate change, as documented in the Year Book, is increasingly changing the global environment, from the melting of permafrost and glaciers to extreme weather events.
But it is also beginning to change the mind-sets, policies and actions of corporate heads, financiers and entrepreneurs as well as leaders of organized labor, governments and the United Nations itself.
Combating climate change increasingly is being viewed as an opportunity rather than a burden and a path to a new kind of prosperity instead of a brake on profits and employment, the UNEP Year Book shows. The emerging green economy is driving invention, innovation and the imagination of engineers on a scale not witnessed since the industrial revolution of more than two centuries ago.
The report points to the growing interest in novel geo-engineering projects such as giant carbon dioxide, C02, collectors that absorb the greenhouse gas from the air as trees do.
"Based on technology used in fish tank filters and developed by scientists from Columbia University's Earth Institute, this method called "air capture" can collect the CO2 at the location of the ideal geological deposits for storage," says the report.
Meanwhile, scientists in Iceland and elsewhere are looking at injecting C02 into that country's abundant basalt rocks where it is claimed the gas reacts to form inert limestone.
Similar "sequestration rocks" exist in geological formations across much of the world and may provide a safe and long term disposal option for the main greenhouse gas emissions, says the UNEP Year Book.
Some elements of a green economy are already taking shape.
Corporate social responsibility reporting, including environmental concerns, is now found among corporations in over 90 countries - with the number of such statements mushrooming from virtually zero in the early 1990s to well over 2,000 now, the Year Book states.
The Investor Network on Climate Change, launched in November 2003, now has some 50 institutional investors with assets of over $3 trillion.
And the Principles for Responsible Investment, jointly facilitated by UNEP's Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact in 2006, now has 275 institutions with $13 trillion of assets.
In 2007, financial transactions in the sustainable energy sector reached $160 billion - up from just over $100 billion in 2006, according to another UNEP report drafted to inform the deliberations of ministers in Monaco.
"An initiative to provide seed money for clean energy entrepreneurs has spawned close to 50 new enterprises in Africa, China and India. The Principles for Responsible Investment, facilitated by the UNEP Finance Initiative and the UN's Global Compact, has secured the support of over 275 institutions handling assets of over $13 trillion dollars," said Steiner.
"Among the challenges facing ministers in Monaco is how to accelerate this transformation to ensure that it is far reaching, widespread and above all speedy," he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, composed of more than 2,000 scientists established by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization to advise governments, estimates that to avoid dangerous climate change emissions need to be stabilized at between 535 to 590 parts per million, ppm, in 2050.
In order to meet the stabilization target, global emissions of greenhouse gases will need to decrease in 2050 by 18 to 29 giggatonnes of carbon dioxide with emissions peaking even earlier - somewhere between 2010 and 2030.
A variety of recent assessments such as the Stern Review; ones by the IPCC and others by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change put the costs of stabilization at between 0.3 percent and four per cent of global Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
Stern estimates it at one percent of global GDP, costing around $134 billion in 2015 rising to $930 billion in 2050.
Industrialized countries, except the United States, are abiding by the Kyoto Protocol, which requires a reduction in six greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by the end of 2012.
After 2012, the Kyoto Protocol will be replaced by an global agreement now under negotiation that are expected to be completed by the climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in 2009.
Some developing countries are already committed to a green economy.
UNEP Governing Council President Roberto Dobles of Costa Rica told reporters today that his country wants to become a carbon neutral, zero impact economy by 2021.
"To change the economy, we have to become more resource efficient, the culture of consumption will have to change," Dobles said.
Although the country enjoys a 62 percent forest cover, last year Costa Ricans planted six million trees and aim to plant seven million trees this year, he said.
Costa Rica will be reducing emissions and increasing its capacity to mitigate climate change, Dobles said. "We will be increasing our well-being through a low carbon economy."
In a video message played at the Governing Council today, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to the environment ministers to usher in a "new generation" of solutions to climate change.
"You can help us meet the crucial challenge of mobilizing finance to meet the climate challenge," he said. "We must sustain the momentum, including through practical actions now."

CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: Abel and Cole boycott?

If you believe in global social justice and maximising environmental benefits, its time to face-off the food fashionistas/fascists and boycott Abel and Cole. Their guzzling trucks clogging our roads [these deliveries claim to be eco-friendly but since they do not replace any car-trips since they only deliver one part of our supermarket shop, they are an additional carbon load], their overpriced [claimed to be more expensive than Borough Market, apparently!] fruit and veg being wasted [an estimated 35% of box schemes are landfilled or composted], and they will not buy from the world's poorest farmers - starving the UK consumer of variety particularly when it is needed in winter [babycorn or green beans or swede?] and cutting a lifeline for small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

If anyone established a business delivering by van eco-friendly cat food and household cleaning items, they'd be roundly bollocked by the food miles brigade ... this is all A&C are doing. And you are paying [too much], and WE are paying [the added environmental cost], and THEY are paying [the poor farmers]. Also, the Soil Association should be suing for ripping off their logo [font, scale, size, colours ... ].

Walk to your local convenience store, buy some of their locally-grown vegetables and revel in the range of imported goods from Sri Lanka and India.

Time to boycott a profitable but flawed business plan!

CLIMATE CHANGE and SOCIAL JUSTICE: UNDP China shouts loud for economic equity and justice

Source: Principal Voices by Dr Kishan Khoday, UNDP China

"There is an increasing spirit of global environmental citizenship, a desire to address climate change as a matter of common concern for all humanity."
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, "One generation plants a tree; the next generation gets the shade." As noted by the U.N. Secretary General, climate change has become the "defining issue of our era." The great challenge of our generation is to plant the seeds for future innovation in global society; innovations that can align our current needs for energy to fuel global growth with the needs of future generations to live in a healthy environment. This is more than an academic debate. Countries like China and India have made significant progress toward the Millennium Development Goals and have greatly reduced poverty. But climate change now poses risks to sustaining these hard won development gains.
My work focuses on the most vulnerable of humanity, those who rely heavily on land and water for their daily existence and are expected to feel the brunt of climate change. The British economist and academic Nicholas Stern has called the climate crisis the greatest market failure in human history. For me, it may also become the greatest social injustice. Rural communities across the world rely heavily on the natural environment for their livelihood, while lacking capacity to adapt to these drastic changes.
I work with local partners in developing countries to find ways to increase energy efficiency and use of renewable energy technologies, while also exploring ways communities can climate-proof themselves to future climate risks. I have found that one of the most effective ways to reduce such risks is to increase the efficiency of energy end-users in big cities through practical solutions such as energy-efficient lighting, solar-powered homes and hybrid vehicles. Individually they may not make a major contribution, but when you add up the energy and emission savings the overall net benefit is massive, especially when such initiatives are scaled up in large emerging economies, such as China and India. Start small, think big.
I see great hope in the new generation, the consumers of the future. There is an increasing spirit of global environmental citizenship, a desire to address climate change as a matter of common concern for all humanity and we see this more and more not only in developed but also in developing countries. By engaging this new consciousness we not only stimulate a new green market, but also reduce the threats that rising emissions pose to rural communities.
Another prospect I see is in the social responsibility of industry. Business chiefs are showing leadership in the climate challenge, and these leaders are no longer just based in the developed world. My expectation is that the success stories we are beginning to see in the private sector in places like China and India will become a driver of global growth and a new Green Revolution.
Balancing humans and nature. Balancing urban-industrial growth and the needs of rural people for a stable environment. Balancing developing countries' right to development and the needs of future generations to live in a healthy environment. These are the great challenges of our time. What we need are integrated solutions that match new opportunities in technology and knowledge in the market with a growing sense of global environmental citizenship in society--a new Green Revolution to address both the economic opportunities and the social inequities of climate change.
Dr. Kishan Khoday is the team leader for energy and environment at the United Nations Development Programme in China. Dr. Khoday leads efforts to find local energy solutions to reduce emissions and address the serious implications of climate change on poor and vulnerable communities.

CLIMATE CHANGE and DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: Chinese leadership emerges on crucial issue

China is caught in the crossfire on climate change. Blamed by some for accelerating carbon emissions, blamed by others for not helping to lead developing countries in the negotiations. In a credible and unlikely move, Yt Qingtai has indicated that China not only wants to implement some of the Bali roadmap's ideas, but also that China will also help other developing countries to improve their ability to adapt to climate change.

Source: ChinaView

BEIJING, Feb. 14 -- China's special representative to the UN climate change talks has urged the international community to substantive negotiations to secure a new global agreement on climate change.
Yu Qingtai said the Bali roadmap, adopted at the UN climate conference last December, is only a beginning.
Yu Qingtai said, "The international community must continue with the task of conducting substantive consultations and negotiations, to ensure a final agreement on post-2012 international cooperation on climate change within the next two years."
Yu Qingtai says a framework for future agreements must be based on the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol... particularly the principle of shared responsibilities.
Yu Qingtai urged developed countries to further strengthen policies and measures aimed at emission reduction.
Yu Qingtai said, "The effectiveness of participation by developing countries will depend to a significant extent on whether developed countries will take substantive action on financial and technological assistance."
Yu Qingtai said China takes climate change very seriously and has made considerable efforts to respond to the challenge, with noticeable success. China will also help other developing countries to improve their ability to adapt to climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY: Buy Kenyan roses, Ghanaian chocolate this Valentines Day!

DFID have issued an important press release, keeping pressure on consumers to recognise the importance of balancing the social aspects of trade with the environmental ones. Douglas Alexander says: "And buying African goods shouldn't give you too many worries about your carbon footprint. Roses flown in from Africa can use less energy than those grown in Europe, because they're not grown in heated greenhouses which emit relatively high levels of carbon dioxide. The money cost of these emissions has been calculated at £4.5 million, which is a small fraction of the total value of the £52 million flower trade with Kenya. It is important that we continue to support the growth of poor countries' economies in the way that we shop. This Valentine's Day provides a golden opportunity to do that. " There is a presentation here, which is schmaltzy but lets hope puts the lead back into the trade pencil!

Source: DFID

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander today encouraged romantics in the UK to buy Kenyan flowers this Valentine’s Day.
Farmers and flower producers have been working extra hard to get flowers to market in time for Valentine’s Day given the unrest in the country.
Kenya is the lead exporter into the European Union of cut flowers. Roses constitute more than 70% of Kenya’s flower exports and by meeting demand for roses used on 14 February and Mother’s Day (March 2) exporters earn more than the rest of the year’s sales combined. The Kenyan economy is already under great strain given the political situation and a dip in exports could make the country’s problems worse including many further job losses.
Douglas Alexander said:
"It’s encouraging to see that more and more people recognise the benefits of buying products from developing countries as a way of supporting the poorest people on this earth. Everyone can make a difference on Valentine’s Day including to the lives of Kenyan farmers who, given the current political crisis in the country, have been working so hard in such difficult conditions to ensure their flowers reach the market in time for 14 February.
"Buying flowers from developing countries makes it easier for people there to make a decent living. It’s also important to remember that flowers flown in from Kenya aren’t grown in heated greenhouses so they use less energy than most of those produced in Europe."
Notes for Editors
The Kenyan horticulture sector is the number two foreign exchange earner after tourism bringing in more than $250 million per annum and employing 100,000 people directly and more than 2 million indirectly. It is estimated to impact the livelihoods of 4 million people.
Kenya is the largest supplier of cut flowers to the EU representing 32% of imports. The UK is one of the world’s biggest importers of flowers and almost a third of what we import comes from Kenya.
For more information on where you can source flowers from Kenya.
Trade is the most effective method of reducing poverty and the UK continues to be firmly committed to helping developing countries trade their way out of poverty.
The Department for International Development continues to be a strong supporter of the growing fair and ethical trade sector (positive impact on 7 million certified producers and their families through higher prices, greater certainty, and access to markets) but shoppers also have a huge role to play. Every two years, UK shoppers have doubled the amount of Fairtrade goods they buy.
A 2007 study shows that emissions produced by growing flowers in Kenya and flying them to the UK can be less than a fifth of those grown in heated and lighted greenhouses in Holland.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL SOCIAL JUSTICE: Is Darling sending too many Valentine cards?

UK's proposed global "green fund" [an awful hackneyed outdated name] which has some nice objectives but insufficient substance has failed to interest G7 partners to part with cash. Another case of the UK's thinking on climate issues lagging too far beyond its clever financial brains? An echo of Gates' call for "creative capitalism" to unleash the benefits of a mature financial knowledge economy to help with tricky environmental and social issues? Darling isnt a salesman, in the way Brown & Blair were ... he doesnt have the charisma ... he needs to focus on one prospective lover at a time, not blanketing all prospects with cheap Valentine's cards ... At least he should have tried roses from Kenya !

Setback for Darling's 'green fund' initiative from The Independent

Alistair Darling's efforts to establish an environmental consensus have echoed those of Gordon Brown in Davos.
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has failed, so far, in his attempt to persuade all of the G7 group of leading economies to create, in collaboration with the World Bank, a "green fund" for emerging and developing nations to draw upon as their economies advance.
The idea, also backed by the US government and Japan, would, for example, help pay for sustainable energy supplies rather than the use of fossil fuels for power generation. The com-munique of the G7 summit of finance ministers in Tokyo stated merely that they group had "discussed" the idea, and there was no immediate move on the part of France, Germany, Italy or Canada to sign up.
Nonetheless, Mr Darling said he was expecting a "substantial amount" of funding for the scheme, though he was not prepared to be more precise at this stage.

CLIMATE CHANGE is a defining global social justice issue, says DFID Secretary of State

Source: The Guardian.
Britain is to increase its spending on research into the effects of climate change on developing countries tenfold to £100m over the next five years, the international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said yesterday.
The move follows a warning in a United Nations development programme report that climate change would have catastrophic effects on poor countries and reverse decades of development gains.
Alexander said: "Climate change is a defining global social justice issue. If we fail to tackle climate change, we risk condemning the world's poorest people to poverty for generations to come."
The minister said the new money was on top of £75m the Department for International Development was spending on trying to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Last year Britain also announced an £800m fund to help developing countries adapt to clean energy.
It was crucial that poor countries leapfrogged the dirty kind of industrial development that rich countries went through in the past two hundred years and went straight for low-carbon economies.

Full article The Guardian.

CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: carbon counting - xenophobic tiddlywinks or scientific elixir?

Several months after M&S and Tesco dropped their ill-advised "air freight logos", consumers might be doubly surprised that the "carbon counting" carousel is still turning. This is in large part to the increasingly impotent and cranky UK Government departments that sling copious cash into Carbon Trust. Nice bunch of well meaning people, but whether they like it or not, they will have to deliver some "killer facts" for their burgeoning accounts. Nowhere do they use the word trade-off - e.g. what if i buy crisps today and an apple tomorrow? etc. What about the global and national economic equity implications? The parameters on these carbon counts are ridicuolous and open to ridicule from anyone with a inquiring mind. Have they included the amortised carbon load of producing and maintaining a tractor over all the fields it has and will plough? What about the kit-kats the tractor driver eats - if he had a nice office job, he'd be eating ciabatta? What about the carbon saved by the tractor not being 30 farting draught animals? The Tall Economist is happy that Terry Leahy is leading us down a pathway where this issue is on the horizon behind us ...

Source: The Guardian (UK)

It all began with a packet of cheese and onion Walkers crisps. For this humble potato snack boldly went where no other food product, not even the fearsome Lion Bar, had yet dared to go – the brave new world of carbon labelling.
The smelliest flavour of Britain's favourite crisps has had its carbon footprint measured and, since last year, it has been exhibited on its royal blue packaging for all to see.
It took over a year and a half for the Carbon Trust to figure out a carbon label for the Walkers cheese and onion pack. It's 75g — almost double the weight of the pack (34.5g).
Two other products were also put to the test: Boots Botanics shampoo (average 148g for a 250ml bottle) and Innocent Smoothies (average 225g for a 250ml bottle).
You would be forgiven for thinking that taking this much time to measure the carbon footprint of the lifecycle of a packet of crisps is rather ludicrous, over-complicated, and a waste of time.
But the Carbon Trust and companies argue that it will raise public awareness and, more importantly, will help them, through the evaluating process, realise where companies' biggest carbon sins are. They can then make amends by adjusting their supply chain.
More foods and other products are now set to follow suit. They're even going to measure the carbon footprint of an iron. The Carbon Trust announced this week that seven more companies have signed up to the carbon labelling scheme. That makes 20 in total now — including Tesco, who have pledged to add carbon labels to 30 of their own-brand products, taking in orange juice, lightbulbs, washing detergent and some veg. Cadbury has put forward its Dairy Milk bar and Andrex toilet tissue, and Foster's lager are also getting carbon labelled up.
The idea is to work towards a single standard that will eventually be applicable not just to food, but to a wide range of sectors and products. Halifax bank has already labelled its online Web Saver account with a carbon footprint of 204g. Make of that what you will.
The calculations are done from cradle to grave so, for example, with Walkers crisps, the process began by calculating the carbon emissions of the fertilisers used in the soil, then proceeded to the farmer ploughing the field, the manufacturing process, packaging, distribution, retailing and finally to the disposal of the packets at the end of their life, including transport from disposal site to the recycling point or landfill site, as well as emissions from the recycling or landfill process.
If that sounds full-on, think about the number of calculations needed to find the carbon footprint of a food with larger numbers of ingredients, such as a pizza or a pre-prepared fruit salad.
The point to all this, said former Defra head David Miliband last year, is to help consumers, who often feel confused and powerless, as well as producers, who feel their environmental efforts are going unrecognised and unrewarded.
But does it really? It is likely to confuse a lot of people who will be faced with a number which, at present at least, has no meaning. Is 75g per pack a lot or a little? It sounds a lot, coming in at double the weight of the pack. So, does Walkers get a big green thumbs up or down?
And even with a common standard, it is going to take an age to carbon footprint every product. Last year, Tesco boss Terry Leahy announced that the giant supermarket chain would carbon label all of its products — some 70,000 different lines. This was wisely pared down to a more manageable 30 products a few months on once Leahy — or more likely the poor soul he put in charge — realised how much work it would entail.
So is it worth all this effort? Will the carbon label system work, and will we ever understand it, and care enough to change our habits?
A quick straw poll amongst friends revealed that there may be some way to go. "What if my flowers have been flown in from Kenya?" one points out. "I'm supporting the community there but the carbon label will be huge from all the air miles." "And if they're taking into account the whole lifecycle, including how I cook my food, does that mean I am never again allowed to slow roast my potatoes and am condemned to a life of mash?" quips another.
Others complained of being labeltastically fatigued, with Fairtrade, organic and traffic lights amongst others already fighting for space. But there is something morbidly interesting in knowing how much carbon has been emitted producing the food we'll gobble down in a few minutes. And more often than not, it's far too much.

CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: George Bush listens, learns, loves ... ignores?

Forget Kennedy's Peace Corps, Dubya is being urged to include a Clean Energy Corps in his legacy to the world post-2008. This is viewed as a key-turner to increase environmental and social sustainability in one of the most economically polarised developed countries, the USA. What are the chances for this being a pilot for a program with global eco- and social-sustainability objectives? Is the world ready for an eco-ethical Bush legacy? Would a more competitive eco-ethical field, would see Gore, Bono and Brown accelerate their international efforts? Or would the eco brand be forever tarnished?

Source: PRNewsWire: 'Go Green, Go Equal:' Environmental, Minority Groups Outline Needed Long-Term Economic Stimulus for All Americans

Unusual Coalition Urges Congress, White House to Focus on Sparking New Economic Boom, Resolving Climate Woes and Expanding Prosperity for Poor and Working Class.
Two dozen leading environmental and minority groups are urging the White House and Congress
to look ahead to a long-term economic stimulus package that would use targeted investments in energy efficiency, mass transit, and a "Clean Energy Corps" to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work while strengthening the economy, accelerating towards energy independence, and easing the harm of global warming.
In the joint statement to President George Bush, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the groups write: "By increasing national energy efficiency, reducing out-of-pocket energy spending, and creating employment opportunities, the measures above will meet basic stimulus goals while furthering national objectives of climate protection, energy security, and economic equity."
The statement continues: "In crafting a national stimulus package, we urge you to consider policy measures that not only help keep our economy out of recession in the short term, but also make smart investments in longer-term, sustained economic prosperity by moving our nation towards a clean energy economy that provides employment opportunities for poor and
working-class Americans.... We have an opportunity to act boldly to strengthen American energy independence, invest in the clean, sustainable energy sources that will form the foundation of a new era of economic prosperity, and address global warming -- all while putting hundreds of
thousands of Americans to work."

In addition to endorsing such short-term steps as increased spending on means-targeted or unemployment-targeted programs (e.g., unemployment insurance, food stamps, and LIHEAP) and investments in the U.S. physical infrastructure and public buildings, the groups also call for steps to "promote a clean energy economy that provides opportunities for all Americans, including the poor and working class, including:

-- Funding a public Clean Energy Corps that offers work and service opportunities to the young and poor to combat climate change through energy efficiency and weatherization projects;
-- Expanded and immediate funding of the recent Green Jobs Act (GJA), Title X of the EISA;
-- Directing infrastructure investments toward transit, mixed use dense development, walkable communities, and overall reductions in vehicle miles traveled and our nation's carbon footprint;
-- Investing in improving our electricity grid to be 'smarter' in end-use efficiency and allowing greater use of distributed renewable energy generation;
-- Using additional monies allocated to LIHEAP for improving building energy efficiency as well as home heating assistance, and removing current constraints on such use;
-- Extend production and investment tax credits for solar, wind, and other renewable energy companies to prevent high-growth clean energy industries from having to cancel projects and lay off workers;
-- Establishing federal credit guarantees for state and municipal 'efficiency utilities' promoting energy conservation efforts in transportation, industry, and buildings;
-- Establishing a federal revolving loan fund to support such efforts; and

-- Providing personal tax credits or rebates to encourage the purchase and installation of energy efficient appliances and heating and cooling systems."
The joint statement was signed by 1Sky; Breakthrough Institute; Center for Neighborhood Technology; Center for State Innovation; Climate Crisis Coalition; Climate Protection Campaign; Climate Solutions; ColorOfChange.Org; The Corps Network; Earth Day Network; EcoAmerica; Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Energize America; Green for All; Green House Network; Hip Hop Caucus; Innovations in Civic Participation; Kyoto USA; MoveOn.Org Political Action; Solve Climate; Step It Up!; Sustainable South Bronx; and U.S. Climate Emergency Council.

CLIMATE CHANGE and THE POOR: Can the Poor be Insured Against Climate Change?

Microinsurance forwarded as an option to help the poor. Good article by a serious economist!

Source: Le Panoptique, by João Sarmento Cunha

Moving into the XXI century, images of lives devastated by floods in Asia, droughts in Africa and cyclones in Central America are becoming increasingly familiar, reminding us of how vulnerable people in developing countries are to climate change. Considering the hardships these people face every time a catastrophe dawns on them, could they not perhaps be insured against the perils of climate?
Recent headlines of devastation caused by Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, displacing over half a million people, or the massive floods in southern Mexico, leaving vast stretches of land completely submerged, are just the visible face of a growing problem affecting developing countries. According to a recent Oxfam report1, the number of weather related disasters has quadrupled over the past 20 years, with an average of 500 disasters taking place each year compared to 120 in the 1980s. Vulnerability to adverse weather events occurs for several reasons, among them the geographic location, poor infra-structure, economies highly dependent on agriculture, high incidence of poverty and limited means of coping with risk, including access to formal insurance. Climate change is expected to make matters worse, raising the likelihood of more extreme events like the ones mentioned above and posing real risks to development2. So, considering that many instruments already exist for risk-sharing and transfer, can these also be provided to the poor in rural areas of developing countries? Can the poor be insured against adverse weather events and climate change more broadly?
Risks, vulnerability and poverty
The rural poor own very few assets and income generation is largely dependent on labour put into agricultural activities. The main threats to livelihoods are therefore those pertaining to loss of life, critical illness, old age, lower agricultural productivity and loss of assets. To counter these risks, and considering that formal protection mechanisms such as social security and formal insurance are wholly absent, these people have developed sophisticated strategies to “insure” against negative surprises. Ex ante, they may diversify their sources of income and make more conservative decisions on farm technologies and techniques. Although less risky, these forms of income smoothing tend to yield low returns and contribute to the vicious circle of poverty.
They may also resort to risk coping strategies following a shock, such as drawing down their savings or through mutual assistance arrangements. The downside is that these strategies are often insufficient in dealing with shocks that affect whole regions (i.e. covariate shocks). This is especially true if the savings are held in cattle or grain, and thus perishable, and if the social networks are based on close relatives and neighbours which may be equally affected by the shock. There is also significant evidence that when severe economy-wide shocks occur, certain survival strategies are used that divert spending away from investments in education and health, with serious implications on the well-being of future generations3-4. Transitory events can therefore have permanent effects on household welfare5.
For more see here.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND UK CONSUMERS: animals remain turn-on for Brits, and climate a turn-off

Co-op accuses its rivals of lazy thinking again as it proves climate indifference is the norm, and the Brits fabled animal love is a dominant force. Is the Coop going to poach Jamie Oliver from battery-hen powered Sainsbury?

Source: "Shoppers care more about animals than climate" by The Guardian,
Animal welfare and fair trade are far bigger concerns to UK consumers than climate change, according to a huge new poll of UK shoppers.
Only 4% rate climate change as their top ethical priority, compared with 21% who think animal welfare is the most important issue and 14% who rate fair trade as their key concern.
The findings come from a survey conducted by the Co-op grocery business that has been used to draw up a "responsible retailing" policy, designed to reflect shoppers' concerns.
The Co-op claims the survey is the biggest poll of consumer ethics ever undertaken. The supermarket group analysed responses to a detailed, four-page questionnaire from more than 100,000 members and customers. It intends to use their responses to guide changes to the way it does business.
As a result of the survey the Co-op is halting the sale and use of eggs from caged hens with immediate effect. The 2,700-strong supermarket chain is also ensuring all its own-brand tea - including its 99 brand - becomes fair trade. The customer-owned grocery business, which made all of its coffee fair trade five years ago, intends to absorb the extra costs so that prices do not go up.
Three main categories emerged from the survey as the key areas of concern: ethical trading (27%), animal welfare (25%) and environmental impact (22%).
Shoppers' worries about the environment are focused on issues other than climate change. Twice as many are concerned about the amount of packaging on their food as think global warming is the most important issue.
As a result, the Co-op is changing the shape and weight of its 26 own-brand wine bottles to save 450m tonnes of glass a year. It has also increased its list of prohibited pesticides from 32 to 98.
Among those who believe ethical trading is the most important issue, 14% make fair trade their priority, with 8% supporting "general ethical trading" policies.
Some 4% pinpointed animal testing as the ethical issue they believe is the most important facing consumers - the same proportion as want more attention paid to climate change. Paul Monaghan, the Co-op's head of ethics, said the group believed that consumers' apparent indifference to climate change was likely to be the result of believing they have little influence to force change: "They may believe they are powerless on climate change. People can choose to buy Fairtrade or Freedom Food labels, but there is no carbon label yet. We think shoppers see climate change as an issue for corporations and governments."
Peter Marks, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, said the organisation would not scale back its support for the global drive to reduce greenhouse emissions despite its members' seeming ambivalence to the issue. He said they needed more information, adding: "Over the next decade we will work even harder to help customers understand the threat we face and the actions we can take."
The Co-op launched its vast consultation exercise last September. It aimed to discover which issues meant most to its customers and to make it clear that some seemingly sensible changes had negative repercussions that it would not support. The grocer pointed to the aeroplane stickers used on air-freighted exotic fruit and flowers by Marks & Spencer and Tesco and accused its rivals of "lazy thinking".
The Co-op said it would never introduce such stickers because they could have a detrimental effect on growers in less developed countries and the carbon produced by importing from African farmers can be a fraction of that produced by farmers in Europe because of the heating and lighting required.
The Co-op has long been at the forefront of the ethical debate. It was the first major retailer to champion fair trade, when it put Cafédirect coffee on its shelves in 1992, and introduced the UK's first fair trade bananas in 2000.
In recent years, however, supermarket groups have increasingly been seeking to underline their credentials as planet-friendly businesses. Marks & Spencer has set out a 100-point Plan A eco-strategy while Tesco has set out a "community plan" and has pledged to "become a leader in helping to create a low-carbon economy". Tesco is also leading an initiative to come up with a carbon-labelling scheme and last year announced £25m of funding for a new Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University.
Monaghan said the Co-op was now "raising the bar" with its ethics policy

CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL EQUITY: India cools on developed country apathy [again]

Small carbon footprints, poverty and addressing adapatation characterise developing countries. Yet, they remain pariahs for many developed country mitigation programmes and excuses for inaction.

Source: India News by Arun Kumar, IANS - "India asks developed world to walk the talk on climate change"
India has asked developed countries to walk the talk on climate change and stop harping on standards "benchmarks" to let developing countries play their part through agreed flexibility mechanisms.
"An absolutely clear imperative is that developed countries walk the talk on GHG (Green House Gas reductions)," R. Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Indian government, told a US-sponsored international climate change in Honolulu Thursday.
"There has to be a clear understanding that developing countries have small individual carbon footprints and their overriding priority has to remain poverty eradication and addressing adaptation," said the leader of the Indian delegation to the second Major Economics Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change.
"Developing countries including India, are playing a part in the international action on mitigation especially through the flexibility mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol as also taking nationally appropriate action on mitigation," he said.
Expressing concern over suggestions on setting standard "benchmarks" for various technology sectors, Chidambaram said: "Such benchmarking would be premature for developing countries - smaller players have to catch up.
"Moreover, we should not put the cart before the horse. If technologies are transferred properly, standards would automatically be achieved."
Asking the participants to "sculpt our ideas and proposals on climate change within the provisions and principles of the Framework Convention," Chidambaram made a strong plea for the "spirit of common but differentiated responsibilities" to pervade their deliberations.
Expressing concern that the agenda did not emphasise the special need to support developing countries, he said: "The group of large economies representing both developed and developing countries should be able to discuss issues of relevance to both but within the clearly identified building blocks and other details negotiated at Bali."
Noting the Bali Action Plan is about long term cooperative action to enable full, effective and sustained implementation of the Framework Convention, Chidambaram asked the participants to do "without suggestions for additions, including on competitiveness etc., which are the subject matter of discussions elsewhere."
The major economies process is well placed to contribute to the building block of technology with both its components, he said suggesting, "If knowledge is already available and technology is already developed, it should be transferred to the developing countries."
"If the process of knowledge generation is still on, there should be scientific and technological cooperation between the developed and developing countries and in this India will be more than happy to contribute," Chidambaram said.
Noting the prospect of rapid depletion of fossil fuels are now driving the global development of energy related technologies like renewables, efficiency and nuclear, he said: "Development of each technology is complex."
"There is need for closing the nuclear fuel cycle," Chidambaram said, suggesting the response to climate change needs to be technology based and discussion on technology was necessary.
The setting of standard "benchmarks" goal needs to be realistic, apart from being based on a scientific consensus at a far higher spatial level than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It should also take into account, historical cumulative emissions, per-capita emissions and the sustainable development needs of developing countries and be guided by Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention in its entirety, he said.
"The issue of a long term goal is, however, linked to issues of equity, Chidambaram said. "We believe that an equal per-capita entitlement to equal sustainable development is unassailable to ensure fairness and recognition that the earth's atmosphere is our common heritage to which all of us have an equal claim."
Noting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's determination to not let India's per-capita emissions exceed those of developed countries even as it pursues growth and development, he said: "This offer is, of course, a challenge to us but it also throws up a challenge to the developed countries and requires sharing of technology."
India was glad that Germany, France and Britain have accepted the importance of convergence in per-capita emissions for developing and developed countries.
"We would be happy to work with like-minded countries to develop this paradigm in a manner that also ensures accelerated growth and empowerment in the developing countries," Chidambaram said.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee led the Indian delegation at the first US-sponsored meeting of the world's 17 major economies in Washington last September.