AFFORESTATION, a key climate change reduction strategy recommended by the United Nations, will not have much effect on global temperatures. Instead, if carried out in high altitudes, it may lead to climate warming, according to a study carried out by scientists in Canada. The scientists assessed the impact of replanting …
The only global treaty that legally binds rich countries to cut greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions may not get a new lease of life, after all. That’s what the latest climate negotiations at Bonn point at. Delegates from 194 countries met in June in the German city for climate change talks, …
Interest in “nested” approaches to REDD+ has grown steadily as policy makers, practitioners and investors seek to reconcile approaches to reducing, and rewarding, emissions reductions at different scales – national, subnational and project. The 16 th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Cancun marked the …
The Cancun Agreement1 carries REDD+ firmly forward as a keycomponent of the post-2012 international climate change regimeby describing its main elements and operationalizing its initialphase. Before Cancun, many details of REDD+ were unclear, particularly concerning the issues of most importance to forest dependent people. There is now agreement that a …
On the night of December 10, Patricia Espinosa shed a tear and received a standing ovation. The foreign secretary of Mexico and president of the 16th Conference of Parties (CoP) on Climate Change held in Cancun had just read out her speech urging all negotiating parties to accept a draft …
Fundamentally, there is no difference between the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 and the Cancun Agreement on Long-term Cooperative Action. Both turn the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on its head—all countries, rich and poor, have a common protocol under which …
Last fortnight we discussed the clandestine endgame afoot at Cancun to change the framework of the climate change negotiations to suit big and powerful polluters. Since then Cancun has concluded and a deal, in the form of a spate of agreements, has been gavelled into existence by the chair. Commentators …
As I write this, some 24 hours are left to finalise the agreement at the 16th Conference of Parties to the climate change convention being held in Cancun. At this moment it seems the predictable deadlock in talks will continue. Like all other global climate meetings, the world remains deeply …
NOTHING characterized the stalemate at Bonn climate talks more than the candid admission by incoming executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, in an informal chat with media, said she did not think a complete climate deal could be reached in her …
This paper critically examines the clean development mechanism (CDM) established under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol in terms of its effectiveness as a vehicle for technology transfer to developing countries, a specific commitment under the UNFCCC. Fundamentally, the paper poses the question of whether technology transfer as part of …
Expanding the number of carbon credit projects under the United Nations clean development mechanism and streamlining its regulation are key priorities for the coming year, said Rajesh Kumar Sethi, the new chairman of the CDM Executive Board of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Executive Board is the de …
Suddenly, climate change is hogging the news. Dire disasters are being foretold. There are lurid accounts of widespread devastation and displacement of millions of people, especially in low elevation coastal areas, resulting from global warming and the rise in sea levels. These pronouncements command credibility not merely because they come …
Global carbon trading has gained momentum. The Worldwatch Institute, drawing from various studies, places the total value of the trade in 2007 at $59.2 billion, an 80 per cent increase over 2006. As the 2012 deadline for reducing emission levels approaches, the volume of carbon trading will be enormous. Asian …
This paper describes what climate change is, including how it is affecting the world live in and the timeframe within which these changes are expected to happen. It then considers why climate change needs to be a priority in development planning, including the inequitable burden it places on the poor …
As part of a global effort to mobilize action and ambition on climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is inviting Heads of State and Government along with business, finance, civil society and local leaders to a Climate Summit in September 2014, New York.
