COP17 Durban Climate Conference - Nov 1-7

The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) is currently finalising a new report on extreme events and disasters. A draft verson of the summary has been leaked to some media outlets and it makes for an alarming read: climate change has already boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones - and such disasters are likely to be even more common in the future. It is "virtually certain" (99-100% sure) that the frequency and magnitude of record-hot days will increase over the 21st century on a global scale.

A grouping of the countries most vulnerable to climate change will meet at the 'Climate Vulnerable Forum' in Bangladesh on 13th-14th November. OneClimate will be at the event as part of our countdown to the talks in Durban, bringing you interviews and stories from the governments on the front lines of the climate crisis.   

The claims of the Green Climate Fund on the proceeds of a potential financial transaction tax are being drowned out by a chorus of alternative supplicants. Within the last 24 hours alone, we've learned that Mrs Merkel links the tax idea with bailing out the Euro, Bill Gates says it should "encourage development", leaving Mary Robinson to point out that the tax is about "fighting climate change in poor countries" as well. All this momentum for the FTT is great news but the key man for this week may not have got his act together. The G20 chair, Nicolas Sarkozy, met civil society representatives yesterday and the Tax Justice Network reports:


This afternoon Sarkozy gets the chance to rectify his oversight.

With just 25 days left before the beginning of the talks in Durban, many negotiators and bureaucrats have been playing down expectations. But for those countries already struggling to cope with the impacts of climate change, time is running out.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is a grouping of 42 islands that are on the front lines of the climate crisis - they desperately need an agreement to halt global warming. The alliance's current chair, Joseph Gilbert, the Environment Minister of Grenada, had this to say in a statement released today: 

This is the first of ten questions for the coming century posed by the venerable Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Washington think tank celebrating its own centenary. I'm afraid that it reflects the type of backsliding ambition that makes me thankful for the UNFCCC process for international climate negotiations, for all its considerable failings. Without it, we would see the richer countries tolerating an intolerable degree of global warming, throwing money at domestic adaptation, as indeed is already happening.

The snag is that the limits to adaptation will be breached in many poorer countries long before we reach 3ºC. Take last month's report from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture warning that coffee growing in Ghana will be in serious trouble by 2050. In discussing the obvious adaptation strategy to plant trees at higher altitudes, the CIAT pointed out:


To finish the week on a more positive note, here's a coffee adaptation story from Uganda, where hills and mountains can ease the temperature pain. The programme is promoted by the Welsh Assembly in the UK.

The climate talks are not simply about people in suits negotiating in grey conference rooms. Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, explains that activists will be out in force during the conference:   

             
We'll bring you the best stories from the streets of Durban during the summit. In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here's a video we shot at last year's talks in Cancun: