Ecological Debt, Environmental Justice & Climate Change - News

'Hot-air' release at Doha climate talks dispels tension

Lidy 2 December 7 2012

By Roger Harrabin, Environment analyst, Doha, Qatar

Details have emerged of a deal to solve the "hot air" row undermining the EU in the UN climate change talks in Doha.

The term refers to unused, tradeable carbon emission permits given to Eastern European nations.

They are among a number of issues that threaten to stall progress at the talks, due to end on Friday evening.

Poland had been reluctant to give up its permits; the EU has now said the country can keep them, but has put strict limits on their sale.

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A Hotter World Is a Hungry World

Lidy December 7 2012

By Stephen Leahy

DOHA, Qatar, Dec 7 2012 (IPS) - Food prices will soar and hundreds of millions will starve without urgent action to make major cuts in fossil fuel emissions. That is what is at stake here on the last day of the U.N. climate talks known as COP 18, scientists and activists say.

Lidy Nacpil of Jubilee South Asia Pacific. Nacpil is based in the Philippines, which is currently experiencing devastation as a result of Typhoon Bopha. Credit: Stephen Leahy/IPS

Carbon emissions are already disrupting the world's climate, making extreme weather events like droughts, floods and storms more damaging. Agriculture and food production are extremely vulnerable to the impacts climate change, several scientific studies show.

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'Delay in funds for adaptation imperils developing countries'

BANGKOK - Climate justice activists trooped to the venue of climate talks here Monday, condemning the rich, industrialized countries, especially the United States and European countries, for delaying the establishment and implementation of the much-needed adaptation fund for climate vulnerable countries or CVCs.

Led by Jubilee South- Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-APMDD), the protest action at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) was participated in by around 50 activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, China, South Africa, Kenya, Chile, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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'EU's offer of 20% emissions cut will help kill planet' - Asian climate justice activists

BANGKOK - The latest offer of the European Union to cut its region's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent is "too low an ambition" and "will help kill the planet," climate justice activists claimed Sunday.

In a protest action outside the venue of climate talks here, advocates from various parts of Asia expressed dismay over the EU's proposal and demanded that "real solutions" to the climate crisis begin with deep, drastic and domestic emissions cuts by rich industrial countries, especially European countries and the United States. 

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JSAPMDD sends delegation to UNFCCC COP17

Dec 1 action 2JSAPMDD sent a delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 17 (COP17) in Durban, South Africa from November 26 -December 10, 2011.

The JSAPMDD delegation included Lidy Nacpil, JSAPMDD Regional Coordinator; Willy D'Costa , Chairperson of JSAPMDD and INSAF (India); Saeed Baloch, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (Pakistan); Dayamani Barla , Adivasi Mulvasi Astitva Raksha Manch (India); Mohammad Arifur Rahman, SUPRO (Bangladesh); Sri Ranti Zachrani, WALHI/Friends of the Earth (Indonesia); Diana Ross, KRUHA (Indonesia); Ian Rivera, Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines); Job Bordamonte, Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines); Chona Leah Ramos and Maria Lourdes Tabios Nuera, from the JSAPMDD Secretariat.

Other JSAPMDD members who took part in the alliance's various activities were Hemantha Withanage of FOE- Asia/Pacific and Center for Environmental Justice (Sri Lanka); Reza Chowdhury , EquityBd (Bangladesh), Ahmed Swapan, Voice (Bangladesh); Imelda Rambitan , IESR ( Indonesia); and Erwin Quinones of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice and Friends of the Earth (Philippines).

The delegation participated in several "inside and outside" actions planned and carried out by JSAPMDD together with groups such as the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Friends of the Earth-International (FOEI), Third World Network (TWN), World Development Movement (WDM), Institute for Policy Studies (IPS-SEEN), Comite per Riforma della Banca Mondial (CRBM), and other members of the WB Out of Climate Finance campaign.