Tropical deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, threatens biological diversity, and has devastating impacts upon forest dependent peoples. Human induced climate change is projected to cause significant adverse effects on tropical forests where there is a decline in precipitation. As a consequence it is vital that means are found to incentivise and reward reduced deforestation in order to assist in the task of preventing dangerous climate change and thus achieve the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Posted by jossc — 3 December 2007 at 2:24pm
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If a week is a long time in politics, then is two weeks long enough for world leaders to finally get to grips with the single biggest challenge we all face - limiting the effects of global climate change?
The answer has to be yes, if only because the consequences of any other outcome would be unthinkable. The start of the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference (otherwise known as COP 13) in Bali today coincides with alarming reports that the tropical belt that girdles the Earth's equator is expanding - pushing its boundaries out towards the poles at a rate not predicted by current computer models, which anticipated such developments only towards the end of this century.
Posted by jamie — 30 November 2007 at 7:17pm
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As you're no doubt aware, the international conference on climate change kicks off in Bali next week and (even though it will be one of those meetings to discuss the possibility of having other meetings to talk about climate change), it's a big deal. So representatives from across the Greenpeace world are making their way there and some will be providing blog updates.
Posted by jamie — 30 November 2007 at 6:10pm
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Taking up the western half of New Guinea island, the Indonesian province of Papua is a bit of a mystery. It's off-limits to outsiders and journalists, so the activities of the palm oil industry there haven't been widely reported. Until now, that is. With the help of the Environmental Investigation Agency, local communities have been making their own films about what's happening to the forests they rely on.
Two of these films have appeared on the web. In the first, Tears of Mother Mooi, members of the eponymous Mooi tribe explain why the forest is so important to them and what they are already losing as a result of the advancing wave of oil palm plantations. The second, Defenders of the Tribal Boundaries, goes into detail about the activities of the palm oil companies - it's frankly depressing to see the devastation being wrought to provide us with a cheap, convenient commodity.
The former chief economist to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Stern, will today
deliver a keynote speech to the Royal Economic Society in London on the need for
urgent action to combat climate change.
His speech comes days before a major
climate summit in Bali which will be attended
by environment ministers from across the world. Meanwhile the Corporate Leaders
Group on Climate Change, overseen by the Prince of Wales, today unveiled a
Bali communiqué to which many of the world's
leading brands are signatories.
The UK government and nuclear industry claim that a new generation of nuclear power stations can be built without any public subsidy. They point to Finland, where the first new reactor ordered in Europe since 1993 is being built, and to the US as proof of a re-emerging industry.
Posted by jamie — 29 November 2007 at 6:54pm
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Ever since
the government started ranting about the joy of new nuclear power stations, a central
plank of their shaky argument has been that the billions required will be
covered by industry and not the taxpayer. But despite these bold claims,
legislation and loopholes have been carefully engineered so that public money
will inevitably subsidise the industry. Hardly surprising, given there hasn't
been a single civil nuclear project that hasn't required huge sums of public dosh.
