Climate Changer

The Thirty-ninth Meeting of the Executive Board has started just today at UN Campus, Langer Eugen, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
As You remember, the Observer registration deadline was 23 April 2008.
It is important to know that webcast open session on 15 and 16 May 2008 might be available, check the documents under consideration at the meeting:

Proposed agenda (80 KB)

Draft Workprogramme (116 KB)

Annotations to the proposed agenda (298 KB)

Annex 1 - Draft Validation Verification Manual (568 KB)

Annex 2 - Status of income and expenditure (106 KB)

Dear visitors, we got a message from Rob D. van den Berg, Chair of the Steering Committee at the International Workshop on Evaluating Climate Change and Development in Alexandria, Egypt, that just started today, May 10th and will contunue 3 more days.

Dear Participants,

We hope you will have a safe trip to Alexandria and hope to welcome you there to the International Conference on Evaluating Climate Change and Development. With more than 250 participants we really cannot call it a Workshop anymore!

The Steering Committee and the chairs of the parallel sessions have worked very hard to prepare the program and to ensure an interesting, challenging and promising meeting. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has made its infrastructure available and will ensure a smooth running event. An Egyptian committee has prepared the opening Egypt session on Saturday, May 10 and the public event on Tuesday, May 12, when students will gather to learn more about climate change and its potential impact on Egypt and the world. The secretariat in Washington has worked tirelessly to coordinate efforts, travel and logistical arrangements and keep the website up to date.

Meanwhile, the subject of climate change and development is gaining prominence month by month. More alarming reports are appearing all the time. Sir Nicholas Stern has called climate change the single greatest market failure in recent decades. Investments needed to replace greenhouse gas emissions are calculated to be more than 23 trillion US dollars. The northern polar ice cap may disappear in summer within a decade. Warnings increase that we may soon reach a point where irreparable harm is done to our environment.
Continue reading International Workshop on Evaluating Climate Change and Development

Rice agriculture in Indonesia could be harmed by the climate change. This hot topic continues with growing force, according to science works published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the beginning of this month. As our readers knew the agriculture sector in Indonesia is already strongly influenced by annual and inter-annual variations in rainfall caused by the Austral-Asia monsoon and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (see this) . These and more catastrophic facts were found at simulators studies how climate change could affect rainfall in Indonesia over the next 50 years. The team from United States’ Stanford University used output from all 20 available global climate models provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Focusing on the important rice-growing areas (Bali and Java), the scientists have found that the value of harmful delays ― more than 30 days ― in monsoon rains could more than double by 2050, from 9–18 per cent today to 30–40 per cent!!
Continue reading Climate change may ruin Indonesian agriculture sector.

Press conference: The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan in December 2008

Press conference regarding the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan in December 2008 was
held during the Globe Forum conference in Stockholm, on Wednesday May 7, 2008, ( between 11:10 - 11.30. Location: Näckström Room C, Berns Salonger, Stockholm.) On 1-12 December 2008, the 14th Conference of the Parties to Climate Convention - COP14 - serving as the 4th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP14/MOP4) will be held in Poznan, Poland. The Convention output achieved so far, as well as that under the Kyoto Protocol, will be summarized there.
Poland will make its best efforts in order to arrange this important international meeting in a manner leading to achievement of specific results aimed at stopping climate change and adaptation to inevitable changes. The Poznan meeting is also a milestone on the way towards consensus on the commitments concerning GHGs reduction that is to be reached during the Copenhagen COP in 2009.
During the Poznan Conference, particular emphasis will be put on identification of specific examples of successful technology transfer and of the actions on adaptation to climate change, so that these good practices could be promulgated. The Conference will attract about 10,000-12,000 participants from 190 countries. In connection with the Convention panels, it will form an important step leading towards specific actions aimed at the protection of the Earth climate. In his recent address delivered at the UN General Assembly, Professor Maciej Nowicki, Polish Environmental Minister, declared to organise a world exhibition in Poznan that will present innovative inventions and management solutions serving for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, beginning from the simplest solutions trough the most advanced technologies.

contact Press Officer Carin Balfe Arbman, tel +46-70-633 35 08

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The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Poznań 2008
Continue reading The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Poznań 2008

Thursday, 8 May 2008, 3:07 pm
Press Release: Greenpeace New Zealand

Greenpeace Response To Heartland PR – May 6 2008

Heartland PR can be found here

From Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Simon Boxer.

It is perfectly understandable that the Heartland Institute is upset –it’s been revealed as completely misrepresenting esteemed scientists to make its case. But there is no need for it to take its embarrassment out on Greenpeace.

Let’s be clear. Heartland is a free-market, anti-regulation right wing think-tank which last year organized the biggest gathering of climate skeptics seen for years in New York. As for funding, Heartland used to publicly state who its corporate and foundation funders were; these days it refuses to. What we know however is that in the past Heartland has received funding from ExxonMobil ($676, 500 since 1998), with the oil giant specifically tagging its 04’ funding to

Heartland for its “climate change efforts”. Heartland’s funding has also come from foundations such as the Charles Koch Foundation (big oil), and Richard Scaife, (well-known right-wing billionaire). One can make their own judgments about these funding streams. Former board members include Walter F. Buchholtz, “Government Relations and Issues Advisor” to Exxon (he then took on the same role for Heartland in 2005). Current board members include a former staff member from tobacco company Phillip Morris.

Heartland’s original statement listing the scientists is unequivocal: “The following list includes more than 500 qualified researchers whose research in professional journals provides historic and/or physical proxy evidence that:…” and goes on to list a number of classic sceptic contentions. Heartland is refusing to change this statement and it is this statement the New Zealand scientists have a major problem with.

Mr Bast reveals that the authors of the list are Dr Fred S Singer and Denis Avery. It’s important to note that neither are climate scientists. Dr. Singer has always asserted the issue of global warming has been “blown out of proportion” by “eco-activists”. He reported that smog is little more than an irritant to people with breathing problems, despite more than 20 years of scientific evidence to the contrary. He has proposed that defending our planet from incoming comets is more important than reducing the threat of global warming. And he has supported the commercial hunting of whales. There seems to be no limits to the breadth of Dr. Singer’s opinions or his willingness to speak out. Rarely does the scientific base of his arguments stand up to scrutiny.

ENDS