durban day 4

bannercop17
COP Day Date of publication
17 4 1st December 2011

Europe: the new fossil

A day of change in the fossil league and this time it is Poland, as EU presidency takes the award. After 20 odd years in the negotiations as the role of quiet mediator and the friendly partner between developed and developing blocks, Europe has taken its firmest stance. With tensions high and many mutterings in the corridors across the ICC here in Durban, many wonder what the outcome of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations will be… More

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Profile: Jamie Henn

Nationality: USA

Country of Residence:
USA

Current Position:
350.org Co-founder and Communications Director…
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Youth and gender participation key to climate change solution

Climate change is supposedly indiscriminate, affecting us all equally and adversely, writes Rebecca Munro  of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scounts, Yet the reality is that climate change accentuates existing inequalities, resulting in youth, especially girls, being yet again disproportionately affected… More

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Combining Top-down and Bottom-up Approaches for Climate Change Negotiations

The Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was doomed to face serious difficulties ab initio because it places the responsibility of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions only with developed countries (Annex I countries) as if they were the only sinners of climate change. Dr Rafael Leal-Arcas suggest a more plausible solution to reduce GHG emissions (which is the whole purpose of this exercise) is to involve major GHG emitters, irrespective of their GDP… More

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Group Hug Around the White House

“Let this be the time when the seas begin to lower and the Earth begins to heal.” With those words and so many other inspiring quotes, US President Barrack Obama inspired millions of Americans to believe that real change is possible and that finally the country would have an administration that would take serious action to avoid the worst consequences of a rapidly warming planet, writes Paul Thompson, Founder of Cool Planet MN.orgMore

The Global Cities Covenant on Climate (The Mexico City Pact) a year after its implementation

Climate change is viewed as an unprecedented phenomenon, writes Ana Romera, General Secretary of Fundación, involving geographical, social, environmental, economic and political dimensions, spanning international and local perspectives. With 80% of the world’s greenhouse gases (GHG) attributed to cities and 90% of the world’s population predicted to be living in cities by the end of this century, cities are at the centre of this crisis… More

Justice in allocating adaptation resources

Climate finance has emerged as a central part of the negotiations under the UNFCCC. At COP 15 in Copenhagen, developed countries made a commitment to mobilise 100 billion USD per year by 2020 to address the adaptation and mitigation needs of developing countries. While many scholars and policy-analysts are crafting an efficient and practical system to handle the resources (i.e. the Green Climate Fund), there is a need to address the larger ethical issues that loom in the background of adaptation finance. How can the resources for adaptation be distributed in a fair way? Ask Göran Duus-Otterström (Gothenburg University) and Johannes Stripple (Lund University).. More

A Republican on climate change

It is often believed in my home country, the USA, that Republicans won’t do anything about climate change. I, John Howard, am setting out to change that by running for our House of Representatives as a Republican whose main objective is climate change policy. I’ll be running for the MN 3rd District seat, which covers an area west of Minneapolis. I’m not the typical political candidate: I’m 23, I hate wearing ties, and I get nervous about public speaking. Hopefully I can use these distinguishing features to show that this issue is simply too important and immediate to get buried by political bickering…More

Quote of the day

I am trying to break through false dichotomies, in particular this one: you can believe in climate change or be a Republican.

John Howard

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder magazine which is published daily at COP17. 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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Nationality:British

Country of residence: U.K

Current Position: Head of International Climate Finance Negotiations for the UK.

What propted your early interest in the environment?

About ten years ago, I read a book called Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming by Tom Athanasiou and Paul Baer. It’s a short accessible summary of the science of climate change, and the scale of the challenge. I defy anyone to read it and not feel the urgent need to do something about climate change.

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