Live updates from 17:09 03 Dec to 20:04 09 Dec

While the negotiations between national governments at COP17 seem headed to a stalemate, a lot of climate-friendly action is going on at subnational levels, and especially in cities, both in developed and developing countries.

For example, mayors and representatives of Durban, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Teheran and Tokyo are meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, December 7th, 5 pm) at the Durban City Hall through a World Bank initiative to exchange their experiences on GHG emission inventories, scenarios and mitigation actions.

The first step for a city to engage in an effort towards protecting the global climate is to know its GHG emissions. The IPCC provides guidelines for making GHG emission inventories at the national level. Huge methodological difficulties arise to apply them at the level of cities and states, as GHG emissions across geographical boundaries are increasingly important. How to account for CO2 emissions due to the transportation of daily commuting workers living in neighbouring cities of a metropolitan region? What to do about methane emissions from a city’s solid waste disposal in a neighbouring city?

Many cities have published GHG emission inventories but the methodological assumptions adopted are not always available. The World Bank has started an effort to standardise this methodology. A framework similar to the GHG Protocol used for GHG emission inventories of companies is under development with the support of the World Resources Institute. In this side event, this approach will be illustrated by the city of Rio de Janeiro that will present its GHG emission inventory in this new format: direct emissions within its geographical boundaries; emissions due to electricity imports to the city; and emissions due to manufacturing and transportation of goods consumed by the city. 

Con el auspicio de CDKN se desarrolló en Durban el evento paralelo que daba cuenta de cómo Kenia le hacía frente al cambio climático con un nuevo enfoque en el diseño de su estrategia.

John Michuki, Ministro de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Minerales de la República de Kenia, explicó que han desarrollado su proyecto a partir de incorporar el cambio climático a la vida cotidiana, ocupándose de 14 subsectores (agrícola, turismo, pesca, bosques y vida silvestre, etc.). Michuki destacó la práctica que vienen realizando de proporcionar a las escuelas tanques de agua para implementar viveros en todo el país. Comentó también sobre el potencial geotérmico de su país, destacando la necesidad de inversionistas para el uso de pozos y la explotación tecnológica. La experiencia en Kenia resulta destacable porque se trata de un modelo que puede ser un referente en el África.

Helen Gichohi, Presidente de la Fundación Vida Silvestre de África (African Wildlife Foundation) expuso el trabajo que realizan en Kenia diciendo: “Estamos trabajando en las zonas donde los ecosistemas se han perdido y estamos tratando de restaurarlos. Los ecosistemas son un valioso activo social y económico y tienen un papel clave en el juego en la construcción de la resiliencia”. Su trabajo en el país africano para hacer frente al cambio climático también pasa por incorporar en su marco de acción a la ganadería, el turismo, la gestión del agua, el manejo de los árboles y proyectos REDD.

http://goo.gl/XC5ow #COP17@cdknetwork 

Designan a Brasil como facilitador de las negociaciones de Durban http://goo.gl/S5KeA #COP17@cdknetwork

La presidencia de la XVII Cumbre de la ONU sobre el Cambio Climático (COP17) de Durban, que recae en el país anfitrión, Sudáfrica, ha designado a Brasil como facilitador para la búsqueda de un acuerdo entre las partes, afirmó el negociador jefe brasileño, el embajador Alberto Figueredo.

CDKN Chief Scientific Advisor Emilio Lèbre La Rovere reports for a second time from Durban.

The international negotiations on climate change under the UNFCCC are moving slowly, due to conflicting views on the legal nature of the final outcome, but almost all key countries are now committed to undertake serious efforts to reduce GHG emissions.  We are facing twin challenges:

Within this context, the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations – IDDRI (a policy research institute based at Sciences-Po in Paris) launched in 2011 a Learning Platform on Climate Policies, aimed to address these challenges. The objectives of the initiative are to build stronger capacities within countries to implement climate policies and to build more trust between countries to negotiate a global deal. It is an independent forum organized as a multi-stakeholder process gathering policy makers, policy analysts, and businesses. It already operates in the European Union, China and India. It will be launched in Brazil and South Africa in 2012, and will progressively extend to other countries.

The achievements and prospects of the Learning Platform were discussed in a side event chaired by Laurence Tubiana (Director, IDDRI) at COP17 in Durban, on 6 December. Nicholas Stern (London School of Economics) highlighted the “power of example” of good practices in mitigation policies from different countries. Rajendra Pachauri (Director, Tata Energy Research Institute, India) and He Jiankun (Vice chairman, China Expert Committee on Climate Change) presented climate policies implemented in the Indian and Chinese contexts. Jos Delbeke (Director General, DG Climate Action, European Union), Serge Lepeltier (Ambassador for Climate Change, France) and Karsten Sach (Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Germany) illustrated a number of European mitigation policies and results. I had an opportunity to present the progress of the Mitigation Action Plans & Scenarios - MAPS project in Brazil, and to mention that CDKN is supporting MAPS to extend its successful experience in South Africa to Chile, Colombia and Peru.

It will surely be interesting to watch the unfolding of the Learning Platform experiment, not only for a potential engagement with CDKN but also as a source of inspiration for other CDKN initiatives (for more information go to www.learning-platform.org).

http://goo.gl/pQqsl #COP17@cdknetwork