Climate Change News Index
Pacific can ally with APEC developing countries at Climate negotiations
11 September 2007. Suva, Fiji – Pacific Island countries, as developing island states, may find potential allies in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) developing countries to start negotiating a global agreement to keep climate change well below dangerous levels at the UN climate change conference in Bali in December 2007, says WWF South Pacific Programme.
This follows APEC developing countries rejecting attempts by developed countries like Australia, USA and Canada to negotiate a global agreement to keep climate change outside of the United Nations, at last weeks APEC Summit in Sydney.
Governments recognize need for deep emission cuts
1 September 2007. Vienna, Austria - Governments negotiating a new global deal on climate change accepted a safe range for emission reductions of harmful climate pollution, WWF said today.
The talks in Vienna were designed to prepare for the UN’s ministerial conference on climate change in Bali in December. The 100 countries meeting in the Austrian capital were to agree the level of emissions cuts that are needed from industrialized countries, to keep climate change well below dangerous levels.
The current emissions reductions targets agreed under the Kyoto Protocol end in 2012. In Bali, environment ministers need to formally launch the negotiations that will conclude in 2009 with an agreement on new binding deeper cuts in heat trapping climate pollution.
Fiji makes it to the Climate change series
Meltdown - a ground-breaking series focuses on the havoc already being wreaked on ordinary people at the frontline of climate change, around the world.
WWF joined TVE - Television for the Environment in Kabara, Fiji last year to produce the ‘Meltdown:Fiji’ series, one of the four episodes produced for the global satellite channel Al Jazeera English.
Germany makes climate sense at G8
5 June 2007. The G8 Heads of State Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, will have climate change and energy efficiency as two of its main topics.
A successful climate change outcome from the G8 summit is important for the Pacific. Several of the G8 countries are among the world’s highest per capita climate-changing gas emitters. If these countries continue their emissions unabated, global climate change will continue and this would have very serious implications for our region.
Recent scientific reports highlight the seriousness of the threat of climate change to Pacific coastlines, water resources, marine resources and reefs. Although as a region our climate changing gas emissions are insignificant, the Pacific has been identified by scientists as among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, we as a region require a strong global response to climate change.
Expect worsening impacts of climate change - IPCC
7 April 2007, Suva, Fiji. Countries in the Pacific are already experiencing serious impacts of climate change. In a report released on April 6 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assesses the vulnerability of countries to climate change, and examines the consequences of this vulnerability on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, disasters, livelihoods and the environment.
Many Strong Voices call for action on climate change
21 May 2007. Meeting in Belize will develop adaptation strategies for Arctic and Small Island Developing States.
When it comes to the earth’s changing climate, the people of the Arctic and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have a message for the world – the time for action is now.
This message is supported by the recently released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which highlights the vulnerability of the Polar Regions and small island states to climate change.
From 27 to 30 May 2007, 40 stakeholders from the Caribbean, Alaska, Fiji, Greenland, French Polynesia, and other locations in the Arctic and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will gather at a workshop in Belize. They are part of the Many Strong Voices Programme, coordinated by the UNEP/GRID-Arendal, based in Norway, the Center for International Climate and Environment Research – Oslo (CICERO), the CARICOM Climate Change Centre and the Organization of American States’ Department of Sustainable Development.
says Grete Hovelsrud, Research Director at CICERO.
Get serious in Nairobi - set course for deeper emission cuts
Kenya will host the second Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP2) in conjunction with the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP12) in Nairobi from 6 to 17 November. Over a decade ago, most countries joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to fight global warming and to adapt to inevitable temperature increases.
In February 2005, the implementing Treaty to the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, came into force, setting legally binding targets for industrialised countries to reduce their CO2 emissions and other heat-trapping gases.
“The world can still prevent dangerous climate change but the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.” says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme.
» Read more about the conference:
People in Climate Change
Jennifer Morgan
The Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme, Jennifer Morgan, has been seconded from WWF to take up a two-year Berlin-based position at E3G, Third Generation Environmentalism, as head of that group’s work on climate change.But, she says her secondment will allow her to return to her foreign policy roots.
“It was probably the hardest decision of my life,” Morgan says. “WWF is a wonderful organization full of amazing committed individuals and has enormous potential to make a difference in the world. I have been there for eight years and my team is like my family. It will be hard not to be heading up that team, and I will miss people a lot, but I know I will be working with many of them in the future.”
» Read the full story on Panda.Org
UNEP study on the impacts of climate change on mangroves in the Pacific
A recent study, co-authored by WWF South Pacific officers' Francis Areki and Lisette Wilson, researches the impacts of climate change on mangroves in the Pacific.
“The UNEP study shows that up to 13 per cent of the Pacific region's mangroves could disappear as sea levels rise because the forests' natural response — to retreat further inland — is blocked by natural features and man-made obstructions, such as sea walls and settlements.”
The report predicts that American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji and Tuvalu will be worst hit...
Global Warming Capable of Sparking Mass Species Extinctions, warns new study
A new joint study largely confirms earlier dire predictions of species loss from climate change.
Given its potential to damage areas far away from human habitation, the study finds that global warming represents one of the most pervasive threats to our planet’s biodiversity – in some areas rivaling and even surpassing deforestation as the main threat to biodiversity.
“Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threat to the planet’s biodiversity,” said lead author Dr. Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto. “This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet.”
World Warms to New Climate Talks
10 December 2005
Real progress was made at the Montreal climate talks as governments finalized the ground rules for the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol and set the stage for discussions to further cut carbon emissions after 2012.
Ministers at the Montreal climate conference agreed early in the morning on Saturday to start the talks that will deliver the deeper reductions of carbon emissions that WWF has been promoting. The deal also opened the door to broader participation from developing countries in the future.
» Read the release from WWF International
» WWF South Pacific boosts Pacific Island attendance at the conference
2005 is the Warmest Year on Record! Read more interesting Climate Facts » Climate Change Records in 2005
Hot Hungry and Gasping for Air - Climate Change puts Fish at Risk
18 November 2005
Fish are increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change as temperatures rise in rivers, lakes and oceans, says a new WWF report. It says that hotter water means less food, less offspring and even less oxygen for marine and freshwater fish populations.
“The balance is set to tip, as climate change continues the pressure on fish populations already strained by overfishing, pollution and habitat loss,” says Katherine Short, WWF's Global Marine Programme fisheries officer.
A New Pact for Combating Climate Change in the Pacific
Thursday, 6 October 2005
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Cook Islands National Environment Service, and WWF South Pacific Programme thus kick starting the Europe Aid funded project- UNFCCC: Facilitating Implementation and Participation in the Pacific.
Penina Speaks in Japan
A WWF Climate Witness Report
After a successful trip to Argentina, WWF Climate Witness Penina Moce, left her home on remote Kabara Island in the Fiji Group to speak to a room crowded with over 200 participants in Japan this October on the effects of climate change and water shortage in her pacific island community.
Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level
A Feature Story
With climate change being such a global issue, looking for ways to deal with its adverse impacts may seem a little overwhelming for the individual. Well, this is not the case for village communities on Kabara Island, Fiji. In Kabara, WWF has worked with four local communities to develop action plans which identify measures that the communities themselves can take, to build their resilience against some of the adverse impacts of climate change.
Protecting reefs against Climate Change
Coral reefs are vulnerable
In many remote islands of the Pacific, communities are often very dependent upon their natural resources to sustain their existence. On remote Kabara Island, in Fiji, is no exception. Isolated from the main urban areas, with no regular shipping services, communities in Kabara have long survived through the resources of the ocean. During the Climate Witness workshops, which WWF facilitated in Kabara for it remote location, several of the community members identified increased incidences of corals turning white, and expressed concern that certain species of shellfish, and fish upon which they depend to feed their families, may becoming scarcer.
Fiji's environmentalists hail Kyoto coming into force
Sending Postcards to the President
WWF and its allies became creative in sending their message to President of the United States of America, George W Bush and Australian Prime Minster John Howard to ratify Kyoto Protocol. Post cards signed by Pacific Islanders were delivering to United States of America and Australian Embassy in Fiji by WWF, Greenpeace and the World Council of Churches staff.
» Read more about Kyoto Protocol Day in Fiji
» Read more about Kyoto Protocol followup in other pacific island nations