Asia-Pacific Leaders Vow to Combat Climate Change, Food Scarcity

ENS

LIMA, Peru, – Leaders of the Asia-Pacific countries expressed their willingness to work together to “confront the challenge of climate change,” which they agreed “will be crucial to the wellbeing of future generations.”

 

At the close of their annual meeting Sunday in Lima, the heads of state and government belonging to the Asia-Pacific Economic Council, APEC, affirmed their support for “decisive and effective long term cooperation now, up to and beyond 2012 to address climate change” under the United Nations process.

The language in the final statement echoes that in proposals put forward by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

“All parties should, in keeping with the requirement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol and the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities,” actively conduct negotiations for the implementation of the “Bali Roadmap” and take effective policy measures in light of their respective conditions to mitigate climate change,” the Chinese president said in his proposal.

The APEC leaders statement supports “a global emission reduction goal” for heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that is the primary issue to be negotiatied through the UN process.

The next step in this process is a 12 day set of talks opening in Poland December 1. An agreement acceptable to all parties is to be finalized in Copenhagen in December 2009. The agreement will follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

“We also noted the declaration in this regard by the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in July this year,” the APEC leaders stated.

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Sri Lanka: Climate Change and indigenous groups

Thalif Deen | Dailey News

As the United Nations readies for a key climate change meeting in Poland next month, a London-based human rights group warns that any new deal on global warming would be seriously compromised if the most vulnerable groups, specifically indigenous peoples, are shut out of the negotiations.

“The entire U.N. process will be flawed if communities that have firsthand experience of dealing with climate change are not allowed to participate,” says Minority Rights Group (MRG).

Mark Lattimer, MRG’s executive director, says “because we naturally think of climate change as affecting us all the whole planet there is a tendency to resist considering the effect on particular groups.”

Human rights advocates, he said, have also arrived late to a debate that has been long dominated by environmentalists.

“Yet indigenous peoples living in fragile environments are not only more likely to be affected adversely by climate change, they are already being affected, sometimes in devastating ways,” Lattimer told IPS.

The upcoming U.N. meeting in Poznan, Poland scheduled to take place Dec.

1-12 is expected to agree on a programme of work in advance of a major U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Both conferences will be working towards a comprehensive climate change regime to be established after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, runs out.

Asked if the international community is to be blamed for the continued marginalisation of indigenous peoples, Lattimer said inter-governmental negotiations frequently marginalise civil society, which has taken decades to find an effective voice in U.N. human rights and development processes.

In the climate change negotiations, which are much more recent, they are still largely excluded, often deliberately, he added.

“Governments think of indigenous communities, who may face displacement or even the eradication of their homelands, as being part of the problem, when in reality they should be seen as part of the solution,” he added.

Speaking at a U.N. seminar last year, Daniel Salau Rogei of the Simba Maasai Outreach Organisation, and a member of Maasai tribe in Kenya, said his community was nomadic and largely made of farmers dependent on their traditional lands and affected by changing weather patterns.

The Maasai considered themselves to be part of nature and, indeed, more than 75 percent of Kenyan wildlife species were found in Maasai territory.

But the territory was under threat from climate change, as well as from encroachment and predation by logging companies and other international business concerns that were actively wiping out natural resources and biological species, he added.

The MRG study says the impact of climate change hits indigenous and minority communities the hardest because they live in ecologically diverse areas and their livelihoods are dependent on the environment.

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Lawsuits Stop Offshore Drilling in Its Tracks

By Yanmie Xie | Fox News

Oil and gas companies appeared to score an all-out victory over the summer when President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling and congressional Democrats let a moratorium expire soon after. But those who think nothing stands between oil rigs and the outer continental shelf are dead wrong.

“Every lease that has been granted in the last several years has been immediately challenged in the lawsuits � 100 percent,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.

When the ban was lifted, the federal government was permitted to sell drilling leases three miles off the nation’s coastlines, free of state objections.

The Interior Department has already started surveying the water and has drawn up maps for lease sales. So far, the government has collected $8.4 billion from the five-year leasing plan that covers 2007 to 2012. Another round of sales will be held next March.

But several environmental groups have sued the federal government over the offshore plans, arguing that the Interior Department failed to consider drilling’s impact on endangered marine life such as bowhead whales and polar bears.

“It is something that has put a cloud over the lease sales,” said Erik Milito, general counsel of the American Petroleum Institute, which has filed a brief in support of the government. “There’s a lot of money at stake in terms of the government receiving the bonus bids already, and there’s also the potential for delay in oil and gas activity.”

The lawsuits were brought by a wide array of plaintiffs, the majority of which are conservation groups. The rest include state governments, businesses and individuals.

In February 2008, the administration issued 487 leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and Alaskan Native groups challenged all of them in court. That’s on top of 108 cases filed against federal agencies over drilling permits in 2006.

Supporters of the lawsuits don’t see themselves as litigation-happy.

“Over the history of the offshore drilling program, litigation has been generally brought only as a last resort, where the Interior Department is trying to proceed in drilling in a very sensitive area,” said Richard Charter, who lobbies on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group.

Defenders of Wildlife sued the Bush administration in 2005 over the government’s decision to extend 37 undeveloped oil and gas leases off the central California coast.

Charter said he prefers to fight against oil and gas drilling in Congress, rather than in the courts. Last November, he helped fend off an 11th-hour move by Republicans to lift the offshore oil and gas drilling ban.

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Ireland: Booklet aims to calculate carbon footprint

By JASON MICHAEL | Irish Times

A carbon calculator booklet to be unveiled today will allow people to measure their impact on climate change.

The publication will have details on the causes and effects of climate change, advice on cutting one’s impact on climate change, and a questionnaire to help people calculate their carbon number.

It will be available from public libraries and local authorities or by calling the lo-call number 1890 242 643.

The booklet is aimed at those who do not have access to the internet. An online carbon calculator set up at www.change.ie that has been used by almost 90,000 people, according to the Department of the Environment.

People’s carbon number – their contribution to climate change – is measured by calculating how many tonnes of carbon they generate through home heating, transport and air travel.

In Ireland, the average carbon number per person is 12 for direct emissions from energy and fuel use; in the rest of the EU the that number is eight.

The Government is seeking to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent through personal actions as well as initiatives by the public and private sectors and through the National Climate Change Strategy.

Announcing the booklet, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said: “Everyone is very conscious of financial cost these days and tries to live to a certain financial budget, but we want to help people to realise the environmental cost of their activities too.

He continued: “We can each choose lower carbon activities, such as walking, cycling or using public transport sometimes instead of driving, avoid wasting water, switch off lights and appliances when not in use, and change to low energy light bulbs in our homes and workplaces.”

The carbon calculator was developed using AMEE, the world’s energy meter, which was adapted to include relevant data for Ireland, including from Bord Gáis and the ESB.

This first phase of the calculator factors in energy and heating in a home and travel patterns. Development of the calculator will be advised by experts from the Department of the Environment, the Environmental Protection Agency, Met Éireann, Sustainable Energy Ireland, the Department of Transport and the Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

AMA meeting: Global warming has health toll, delegates warn

by Kevin B. O’Reilly | AMNews

Orlando, Fla. – Most climate scientists say the Earth is getting hotter and that human activity is speeding up the process. At its Interim Meeting in November, the AMA House of Delegates agreed with the scientific consensus.

The house endorsed the findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Delegates also warned that climate change could have dramatic public health consequences, causing heat waves, drought and flooding, cutting potable water supplies, displacing populations and spreading infectious diseases.

Policymakers should “work to reduce human contributions” to global warming, says the AMA’s new policy, which is based on a report from the Association’s Council on Science and Public Health.

“The scientific evidence is clear that global climate change can cause serious health consequences, and we need to be a part of planning as people talk about preparing for climate change occurring,” said AMA Board of Trustees member William A. Hazel Jr., MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Oakton, Va.

Gary L. Woods, MD, a member of the Council on Science and Public Health and a Concord, N.H., orthopedic surgeon, said the recent rise in vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever is attributable to climate change and that the health toll from global warming is only beginning.

Nearly half of medical waste can be recycled.

The AMA supports research on health-related climate change policy and encourages doctors to work with health departments on health consequences of global warming.

Some delegates objected to the AMA’s endorsing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s conclusions.

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