cop17day12

As one United Nations intergovernmental process ends in Durban, another begins in New York, writes Farooq Ullah, Stakeholder Forum. The importance of these conferences is rising as the stakes become more clear daily. The latest science shows us that while we continue to breach key ecosystem processes, inequality and unfairness is growing between and within countries… More

The UNFCCC concluded in its press release at the end of COP17 that the Parties “have delivered a breakthrough on the future of the international community´s response to climate change, whilst recognizing the urgent need to raise their collective level of ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius”, writes Sven Harmeling, Germanwatch… More

The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Conference took place between 16 – 18 of November, 2011 in Bonn, Germany, writes Jeannet Lingan, Stakeholder Forum. With approximately 500 delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, civil society and the private sector in attendance the objective was to bring together stakeholders from the water, energy and food sectors… More

While both environmental and gender equality issues are identified as key to achieving sustainable development, they have seen the least progress in the sustainable development agenda since the first Rio conference in 1992, writes Ama Marston. With a convening of world leaders in June to revisit the sustainability agenda, it is time to place women’s participation, particularly in natural resource management and tackling of emerging challenges like climate change, at the centre of global discussions… More

Following the meeting of leaders and negotiators at COP17 in Durban, the main focus of discussion has been the Kyoto protocol and the need for a binding international agreement on climate change, writes Sir David King, University of Oxford. This, in my view, is a redundant exercise. The real driver for change in climate negotiations is the call for voluntary national commitments that was issued in 2009 at COP 15 in Copenhagen… More

Durban has served up some unexpected breakthroughs – agreed as usual in the most human way with exhausted individuals, on their third consecutive all-night session, finding compromises that they never thought possible brought on by their bodies’ desire to escape the negotiating halls and recover some sleep, writes Andrew Prag OECD… More

Nationality: Kenyan

Country of residence: USA

Current Position: Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project at Harvard Kennedy School.. More

As momentum builds towards Rio+20, we’ve observed the dialogue developing with the EU preparatory meeting last month and COP 17 in Durban finishing on Saturday. Our aim, write Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone, BioRegional Development Group, as we attended these meetings was to demonstrate that through the simple one planet living and ten principles approaches, we can make it easy to deliver sustainable and better quality lives for all of us, within the planetary boundaries in an equitable way… More

For some reason that I’ve not quite figured out, lots of people in the dying embers of this UN climate meeting were asking “who’s a winner, and who’s a loser?” There are loads of perhaps more rational questions you could ask, the most pertinent being: “What has this done to curb climate change?”, writes Richard Black, BBC More

CARE’s on-the-ground, community-centred work on supporting responses to climate change is all about delivering hands-on approaches together with our partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, writes Agnes Otzelberger, CARE. Our involvement in the COPs, by contrast, has taught us about linking that experience to navigating the labyrinths of highly abstract, technical language… More

Thanks to their closeness to and detailed knowledge of their territories, subnational governments are particularly well placed for identifying the needs and the strengths of their communities in sustainable development. Besides, Federated States and Regional Governments not only implement sustainable development policy and legislation adopted at international and national level, but also have legislative and fiscal competences in their respective territories in a wide array of environmental, economic and social fields that directly contribute to the long term goal of achieving sustainable development… More

Quote of the day

The bottom-up route to tackling climate change will ultimately achieve the internationally cohesive agreements that the Kyoto process has sought – and failed – to deliver.

Sir David King, Oxford University

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder magazine which is published daily at Rio+20 Intersessional and Preparatory Meetings. The articles written are intended to reflect those of the authors alone or where indicated a coalition’s opinion. An individual’s article is the opinion of that author alone, and does not reflect the opinions of all stakeholders.

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