A powerful video thank you to Caritas from Martin Leung-Wai, one of 14 young people Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand helped attend the biggest youth climate summit in New Zealand: PowerShift NZ-Pacific 2012
While the Doha climate talks were wrapping up, over 700 young people from throughout the Pacific came to this event in Auckland, to learn, be inspired, have fun and take action. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand sponsored 12 from New Zealand and two from Vanuatu to attend. Continue reading
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Emilie Johann being interviewed in Doha. Credit: CIDSE
By Emilie Johann, guest blogger in Doha for CIDSE
Overall, discussions have been difficult and ministerial roundtables have taken several thorny issues from the technical to the political level. Will Ministers be up for the challenge to inject some political will and move beyond national interests to respond to the urgent needs of the poorest and for the sake of our common future?
Concerning the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (KP) there is no sign of progress on ambition. The EU will not move beyond its current -20% target unless other parties move, and it is unwilling to consider the cancellation of carbon credits in KP2. So far none of the parties present have announced urgently needed more ambitious emission cuts.
A weak KP2 is a bad sign in terms of the trust and ambition needed to build a new global climate deal which includes all parties, not only the current group of developed countries which amount to only 15% of total global emissions. All should think of the common good and move from their current positions and as a climate champion the EU should lead the way towards more ambition. Discussions on the second period should conclude today, which leaves observers wondering about the form and ambition of what is in fact a new treaty. We need KP2 and we need it to be strong, because this is not only about keeping the international climate regime alive, it is also about paving the way towards an ambitious and equitable global deal in 2015.
It is not given that discussions on Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) can be closed. There is still consensus missing on crucial issues, especially on finance and it looks difficult to get that sorted. The Ministers of Switzerland and The Maldives now have the task to work out a satisfactory outcome on this track, which will be a hard nut to crack if finance is not part of it. Climate finance is of fundamental importance to developing countries for their efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Finance can turn out to be a deal-breaker or a deal-maker here in Doha. Pledges from the UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are a first step and welcome move after too long silence on this issue. Hopefully it will trigger other countries into action and we will see more money on the table, or even better – into the Green Climate Fund, by the end of the week. In fact, what has been pledged so far is far from what is needed to fulfill existing needs and to deliver on commitments that were made.
We need concrete commitments in a text that can be agreed here in Doha, commitments that will result in predictable climate finance which can be monitored, reported and verified. Also, as not all the issues related to scaling up climate finance will be resolved here, a high level political space should be created to sort out how developed countries will reach the promised $100 billion per year by 2020.
Doha : Parties, retroussez vos manches ! Continue reading
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By Adriana Opromolla
On Wednesday, November 27th, a coalition made of CIDSE, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), Misereor and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) held a public seminar (“side event”) at the Qatar National Convention Centre. The event was aimed at discussing the current proposals, within the UNFCCC, to adopt policy decisions addressing the relation between agriculture and climate change, and to promote small-scale agroecology as a viable response . A number of representatives of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the EU were present and engaged in an interesting dialogue with the speakers. Continue reading
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The Doha 2012 march Photo: CAN Europe
By guest blogger Roeland Scholtalbers, CIDSE Media & Communication Officer in Doha
After a week of negotiations with little to no progress, Ministers arrive in Doha among increasing uncertainty about a positive outcome of the climate talks.
Once a modest fishing village, Doha rapidly transformed into a busy capital of a rich nation when enormous gas reserves were discovered. The plane that took me to Qatar circulated for nearly an hour in the dark above the luminous city. It felt like hanging over a giant pinball machine and I couldn’t help wondering whether planet earth was going to finish beyond the flippers of the climate change negotiations.
Organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this year’s climate talks entered their second and final week yesterday (Monday, December 3rd). Today, Government Ministers make their appearance in Doha to firm up agreements their climate negotiators prepared during 2012 based on the outcomes of last year’s climate summit in Durban, South Africa, which started preparations for a new global climate deal by 2015. Continue reading
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by Zar Gomez, Caritas Asia coordinator
The team in Doha
Now on its third day since the start of the UNFCCC meeting in Doha, Qatar, the exhibit booth of the 4-member delegation of Caritas Internationalis proves to be among the largest crowd-drawers at the Exhibit Hall 4 of the Qatar National Convention Centre. Continue reading
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By Adriana Opromolla
The delegations to COP18 of Caritas Internationalis, Misereor and CIDSE discussed yesterday, Nov. 27th, the role of agriculture in climate change and the ways agriculture has been addressed up to now by climate change policies. Participants also included partner organisations from India, Bangladesh, Chad and Kenya. Continue reading
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Girl with a herd that Caritas gave her family two years ago after they were hit by extreme frosts. Credit: Caritas Czech
Tegshbayar Sanduijav, agronomist and research officer at Caritas Mongolia, has flown all the way to Qatar, to participate in COP18 as a member of the CI delegation. This is his first COP, and his expectations are built on his experience of climate change in Mongolia. Continue reading
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As the international climate negotiations re-open in Doha, should we keep faith in the possibility of a successful outcome despite the difficulties of brokering a deal among 194 countries?
By guest blogger Roeland Scholtalbers of sister network CIDSE
The buzz around the Copenhagen climate summit is a distant memory. Since December 2009, climate change has quickly moved down the priority list of many. In the midst of a deep global financial and economic crisis, tackling climate change unfortunately isn’t part of most governments’ efforts to fix their faltering economies. Continue reading
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