Tiempo Climate Newsletters #64 and #65

The latest two issues, #64 & 65, of Tiempo: I like to pick these up at they are released so sorry about that delay. The Tiempo newsletter focuses on adaptation and development in the global south. The publication is a joint project of IIED and SEI.




Issue 65 Contents:

• National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA). (Mohazurul Alam)
• The Sudanese NAPA. (Sumaya Ahmed ZakiEldeen and Nagmeldin Goutbi Elhassan)
• NAPA priorities to policies. (Bubu Pateh Jallow and Thomas Downing)
• Leassons learned in Africa. (Balgis Osman-Elasha and Thomas Downing)

Issue 64 Contents:

• Flooding and the urban poor. (Ian Douglas et. al.,)
• Climate risk integration. (Bert Koenders)
• Adaptation targets. (Ian Tellam)
• Community Adaptation. (Roger Jones and Atiq Rahman)
• Roadmap for Adaptation (Gary Yohe)
  

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UNDP 2007 Human Development Report

The 2007 Human Development Report made a bigger splash than any other report, bar the IPCC's latest edition. Going into Bali the report was big news, around the world, but perticularly in the nations of the global south. Now UNDP have created a superb video explaining the reports conclusions, it is very compelling viewing, highly reccomended.



Related:

• Summary Report (pdf, 800k)


• Full Report (pdf, 12,200k)
  

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Latest Climate Change and Development Bulletin

Issue 63 of the quarterly bulletin is now on-line, featuring articles on on
health and climate in Kashmir, environmental stress and climate change and
gender issues...


In the latest issue of Tiempo Climate Newswatch, a weekly online news magazine
on climate and development...

News of the latest IPCC assessment of climate mitigation options...
 
Plus the latest news on...

• Bonn climate negotiations
  
• 
  
• WWF mitigation report
  
• 
  
• Migration and climate change
  

The Current Climate section now includes the latest monthly data for global
temperature and the Southern Oscillation as well as access to a mosaic of global
webcam skyviews...

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Green politics and climate impacts in the UK

Green politics and climate change in action now.





The prospect of losing homes and belongings to the sea is plaguing coastal communities around the UK.

The planet's climate is expected to change during the coming years and decades, according to scientists.

But the problem is more immediate for many people living in coastal areas at the mercy of the sea.

Communities facing the greatest risks are those in the east and south coast of England.

For example, 26 houses in Happisburgh, a village in Norfolk, have been abandoned due to the erosion of the cliffs on which they were built.

And Aldeburgh, in Suffolk, could become an island if its crumbling sea defences are not repaired.

Erosion is of particular concern in several parts of Scotland including stretches of the Fife coast, Aberdeen and Kirkcaldy.

In April the Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence Project, which involved 60 experts in climate change, engineering and economics, called for increased spending on flood defences and better planning to avoid more homes being put at risk.

Storm surges

For many, the most distressing forecast in the government report outlined the increasing pace of coastal erosion set to accompany climate change.

Rising sea levels are expected to be accompanied by low-lying shores becoming increasingly vulnerable to storm surges.

The report estimated that, if spending continues at current levels, one out of every three existing coastal defences could be destroyed in coming years, putting large parts of the east coast of England at risk.

Responsibility for the defence of coastlines in the UK falls to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency.


The overall strategy for combating rising sea levels is drawn up by Defra, which spends an estimated £500m on coastal defences every year.

A Defra spokeswoman told BBC News Online: "The government has no legal obligation to spend money in this way.

"It chooses to do so because it is socially and economically sensible.

"However, the resources are finite. There are several communities around the country who feel they are in need, so we have to prioritise to spend the money effectively."

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Climate Change: Latin and South America

I thought i`d take a look at Latin America and climate change. I havent written on this before so it makes a nice change, an i`m intending to write an article for Temas on this topic.




It's remarkably difficult to find information about the region that dosent originate from outwith. This information is perfectly valid but it's difficult to be sure that it reflects the concerns of the people who live in the region and face the local manifestations of climate change.


Climate change as an issue has several angles: Causes; Environmental and Human Impacts, and Solutions. These are not seperate by any means but worthy of individaul aswell as join inspection.



Background on Latin America can be found here, a list of the main relavent climate change issues can be found here. My previous relavent content can be found under the southamerica label.

A few resources that are relavent to this area.

• Latin America's (natural and human) contribution to climate change.

1. Fosil Fuel Usage C2,C4,C5,
2. Deforestation and Fires C1,C2,C3,C6,C7

• Environmental and Human impacts of climate change in Latin America. (Map:which nationshave assesed this?)

1. Impact on farming. I1,I5,I8,A3
2. Impact on health. I1,I8,A3
3. Impact on economy. I2,I5,I6,I7,A3
4. Impact on environment. I1,A3
5. Impact of rising sea levels. I3,A3
6. Impact of migration. I4,A3

• Some possible ways to mitigate climate change contributions and adapt to inevitable impacts.

1. Protecting forests. M1,M2
2. Alternatives to Oil, Coal and Gas.M2,M3
3. Adaptation of climate change.A1,A2,A3,

Some good sites with more information.

1. Amazon Watch
2. Carribean Environmental Health Institute
3. The Panos Institute of the Carribean
4. Adaptation days at COP 11

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Report of the Week: Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change

Interested in looking beyond the western perspective on climate change?

A recent conference on 'Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change' looks at the challenges we face due to commited emissions so far. Since Kyoto emissions have only increased, weather we like it or not adaptation is going to be a key concern in the developig world over the comming century and if there are going to be deals on mitigation the the global north is going to have to take on much of that financial burden.

These conference proceedings summarize the intensive
discussions held in New Delhi (January 5-7, 2006) on Adaptation to Climatic Variability and Change. The conference, which was financed by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and organized jointly by the Institute
for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) and Winrock International India (WII), brought together a unique set of participants that included high-level governmental decision-makers, development organizations, physical and social
scientists, and field practitioners. While presenters spoke in their individual capacity rather than as representatives of organizations or governments, they brought a wealth of perspectives and practical experience to the meeting.

More on the challenges of adapting to climate change here.

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Website of the Week: ISET

This week the website which I would like to draw some attention to is that of ISET.

According to the website:

ISET is an international partnership for implementation, education and research on natural resources & the environment.

More plainly, they are an organisation who have produced reports on water management, adaptation to increased risk of flooding, and the policies required for combining development and adaptation to climate change.

In general many developing nations, perticularly those not as far along the path of development as china, see adaptation to climate change as there big challenge. Looking at the growth of some of these nations will lead many in the west to hope that this will change. The continuing widespread poverty in many areas of Asia, is perhaps masked by such gross statistics as GDP growth that we are bombared with.

Combining clean development with adaptation is becoming more a more an more urgent issue, and is gaining support. A couple of the key organisations in this field of research are TERI (India) and BCAS (Bangladesh), both of whom contribute to a recent report published in
conjunction with ISET.

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Report of the Week: Asian Aspirations for Climate Regime Beyond 2012 (IGES)

IGES OFFICES

Some months back I had a report of the week by the Institute for Global Environmental Stratagies (IGES). This report was the result of phase 1 of a wide ranging consultation that was carried out throughout Asia. A review of this first report can be found here. The second phase has just been completed and the results are summarised in a new report entitled "Asperations for Climate Regime Beyond 2012". Whereas the previous report went into great detail about the emissions per country and the basic concerns, this report is more focused on designing a general system for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

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Website of the Week: Development and Adaptation Days

This weeks website of the week is the Development and Adaptation days section of the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) website.

The IIED is based in London and do a great deal of important work focused on "Mainstreaming Adaptation". Clearly a fair degree of climate change is already locked in and whilst we may not be justified in assuming complete failure by nation states in curbing there emissions it is abudently clear that there has been a period of political domancy that is going to hit the poorest hard. Adaptation stratagies are therefore a very real requirement for the comming century, nowhere more so than on the marginal grazing lands of Africa's Sahel.

Infact, as mentioned previously the possibility for conflict driven by climate change is only to real. Jeffrey Sachs has interesting things to say about Dar Fur on this account.


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