Deep Pockets Needed for Climate Change

Deep Pockets Needed for Climate Change



   
April 2007  Global warming could 
trigger conflicts over water, the spread of diseases, and a 
big increase in worldwide migration unless adequate adaptation 
measures are developed and integrated into long-term 
development planning, according to the top UN climate change 
official, who stressed that dealing with these impacts will 
require adequate funding. 
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations 
Framework Convention on Climate Change, was commenting on the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, assessment of 
present and future impacts of climate change, released in 
Brussels on Friday. The report, "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, 
Adaptation and Vulnerability," is the second of three IPCC 
reports due this year. 
Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands is executive secretary of the 
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 
"These projected impacts tell us that we urgently need to 
launch an agreement on future international action to combat 
climate change, as well as look for effective ways to generate 
the funds needed for adaptation," said de Boer. 
"According to some estimates, there are already almost as many 
environmentally displaced people on the planet as traditional 
refugees. As the impacts of climate change strike home, the 
numbers are likely to rise considerably, possibly as high as 
50 million by 2010," he said. 
Substantial financial resources will be needed to allow people 
to adapt, for example by coping with increased incidences of 
drought or relocating away from coastal areas endangered by 
rising sea levels. 
"Our current sources of funding are insufficient to cover 
these adaptation needs," said de Boer. "So the international 
community needs to investigate new and innovative sources of 
finance, not least through the carbon market, in order to 
environment newsure that the most vulnerable communities are able to cope. 
In many cases this financing, while addressing adaptation to 
climate change, will contribute to the economic and 
sustainable development of the communities, he said. 
According to the IPCC assessment, the Earth is likely to warm 
by 3 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) during this century, a 
temperature that would have negative consequences for 
biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services, such as water 
and food supply. 
The assessment said that warmer global temperatures are 
causing profound changes in many of the Earth's natural 
systems, such increased run-off and peak discharge in many 
glacier and snow fed rivers. 
Climate change is an economic, trade and security issue and 
will increasingly dominate global and national economic 
decision making, said de Boer. 
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Conference 
in December in Indonesia, Parties to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto 
Protocol will agree on how to shape the post-2012 climate 
change regime under the auspices of the UN. 
"This will be the opportunity for the international community 
to show commitment and to take action on adaptation and 
mitigation. Climate change will also be at the top of the 
agenda of heads of state at the upcoming G8 summit in Germany, 
so the appropriate political signals can already be sent from 
there," he said. 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has called climate 
change one of his top priorities, is urging nations to make 
decisive efforts to alleviate the worst consequences brought 
on by global warming. 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 
"Adequate, large-scale adaptation measures have the potential 
to alleviate some of the worst consequences outlined in the 
report, if governments take action without delay," Ban said in 
a statement. 
Even before the IPCC assessment was released on Friday, 
development ministers of the world's most industrialized 
nations - the G8+5 - were making preparations to address the 
impacts of climate change at this year's G8 summit in Germany.
 German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development 
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said, "The consequences of climate 
change will be dramatic, for developing countries in 
particular. A large number of armed conflicts are already 
destabilizing these countries. The German presidency of the G8 
aims to tackle these problems and adopt concrete initiatives."
 On March 21, the World Business Council for Sustainable 
Development, WBCSD, published its climate change policy paper, 
"Policy Directions to 2050." It asserts that the only way to 
combat climate change is through decisive, concerted and 
sustained actions between governments, businesses and 
consumers. 
"Governments must start building the future policy frameworks, 
and it is necessary for us in business to begin to respond to 
those policies in time to meet the future emission reduction 
targets," said WBCSD President Björn Stigson. "We can not 
continue the 'you first' mentality. We need leadership and 
action by both governments and business." 
"The world has reached an unsustainable trend in greenhouse 
gas emissions, so we now need to take action to decarbonize as 
much as possible the world's energy mix. Resources are to be 
used more efficiently at the same time as we meet growing 
energy needs," said Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of French nuclear 
energy company Areva and co-chair of the WBCSD's Energy and 
Climate Focus Area. Anne Lauvergeon is CEO of the French nuclear
 energy company 
Areva. 
"For that to happen one key element is to collectively define 
a global, long-term and quantifiable pathway for annual 
greenhouse gas emissions," she said. "This shared diagnosis 
could then be a point of reference for the development of 
national energy and climate policies." 
In the United States, White House Council on Environmental 
Quality Chairman James Connaughton said, "Adaptation at its 
core is a fundamental component of the [Bush administration's] 
development strategy." 
The United States and other developed nations are directing 
billions of development dollars toward the developing world, 
according to Connaughton, "training people so they can make 
smarter choices about land use, making agricultural practices 
more modern," increasing access to clean water and sanitation.
 U.S. water resources planners and managers will assess the 
risks of regional climate changes and determine impacts to 
management practices during an American Water Works 
Association seminar set for April 20 in the desert city of Las 
Vegas, Nevada 
The third part of the IPCC report, on curbing greenhouse gas 
emissions, is scheduled for release in May; the fourth, a 
final summation, is due in November. 
"This groundswell of information is also pushing along a 
groundswell of additional policies and international 
cooperation," Connaughton said. 
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar and his 
government will host the 13th Conference of the Parties to the 
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December.
 Meeting today in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Australian 
Environment and Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull, 
Indonesian Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban and Indonesian 
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar underscored the two 
governments' recognition that climate change is a global 
challenge. 
"Action to reduce deforestation can increase the forests' 
capacity to absorb carbon, including through reducing land and 
forest fires, and decrease global greenhouse gas emissions," 
the ministers said. 
Indonesia will host the 13th Conference of the Parties to the 
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December. 
At this conference, Australia and Indonesia will be working 
together on the issues of adaptation, mitigation and 
deforestation, the ministers said. 

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