Watching Bali with that sinking feeling

THE VIEW FROM SUVA

For years, scientists and environmental activists have been talking about the consequences of climate change and in particular sea-level rise – an issue that touches all of our lives in the Pacific.

Observing the global climate change conference from Suva can be a bit puzzling, especially if you stop by the official website.

Which was why I was somewhat wary of an article on Fiji Times Online titled “Victory at Bali for vulnerable nations” today. The article quoted a statement from the International Institute for Environment and Development which said years of tense climate-change talks ended with a “victory for the most vulnerable countries, which won a key decision at the UN conference in Bali.

But in an online search, no other stories of the “victory” for vulnerable states were readily apparent.

Another thing that raised my curiosity about the article was a somewhat different story I’m hearing from Bali.

The scepticism within the NGO community about whether any real gains will be achieved is understandable.

One of my NGO contacts in Bali sounded desperate in an email about “what is going down here.”

“It is going so bad and our island nations are going under because the big economic players don’t care and in part, some our (Pacific Islands Countries’) delegates have not been at meetings where they could really be effective in making our voices heard.”

So there you have it: The international economic powers ignore our concerns while our own leaders can’t get their act together and demand real change on the issue of climate change.

Sure there have been numerous gains – such as Fiji making a huge portion of its ocean zone a marine protected areas.

New reports are emerging about more victims of climate change or environmental refugees: Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Carteret Islands off the coast of PNG are living examples of the greater catastrophe that looms.

Overall you can’t help getting that sinking feeling.

Read more!

Daily Brief from Bali - Friday, 7 December

"Prove You're a Leader - Commit to an Ambitious Bali Mandate", WWF

THE LATEST - We need to see real leadership here in Bali. Government delegations must cut emissions from the rich, one third below 1990 levels by 2020. The political momentum is building. The EU, who committed in March 2007 to a cut of up to 30 percent, is being joined by
others in its ambition. Several emerging economies are supporting formal negotiations and have promised to do their fair share.

THE QUOTE - "Balimust be the "We Do" summit - we can come to an agreement, we can cut emissions, and we can slow the impacts of dangerous climate change," says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme. "Leaders must agree a formal BaliMandate - not a roadmap to nowhere, but a highway to stopping dangerous climate
change." Read more!

Daily Brief from Bali - Thursday, 6 December

Ambition:
The Bali road map cannot lead to nowhere but must take aim at an emission reduction target that is congruent with what science tells us needs to happen: ambitious emission reduction targets for industrialized countries, stating that peak and decline of global CO2 emissions should happen well before 2020, and that the world should keep well below the danger threshold of 2°C warming (above pre-industrial level).

All those are somewhere on the table but the dots have not quite been connected. Some countries speak about the 25-40% reduction target by 2020, others studiously avoid it. Some say it should be under the Convention track, some say it should be under Kyoto. Those ranges apply to industrialized countries: but where does the global picture come in is still unclear.


What is happening now:
Countries have been changing positions in the negotiations very quickly. Australia's Kyoto ratification is the most pronounced change, Iceland adopted the 2°C language one or two days ago, and even the Canadian environment minister has supported this target openly - an
astounding feat.

Selected building Blocks

Adaptation: We are not yet sure what countries really are seeking on adaptation. What we need at this stage is a paragraph to be part of the Mandate that can make a work programme or similar operational for adaptation.
The discussion about the implementation of the Adaptation Fund is continuing - a number of countries came out in favour of GEF but a core of developing countries continues to hold out against it. Brazil has come out with a clear refusal to endorse the GEF. G77 have presented a
draft decision for operationalizing the Adaptation Fund. However, this may be a decision that goes against the GEF. Objections to the GEF are that it is inaccessible, bureaucratic, and too expensive.

REDD: It seems that draft decision text is okay for many countries (comfortable). Some countries push to widen the REDD agenda by including agriculture and other land use issues - something that WWF rejects as unworkable - we want to keep REDD slim and ensure adequate funding.
There is significant support for the World Bank partnership initiative, and clear interest to provide early funding for pilot projects.

Carbon markets: The discussion is mostly limited to technical issues as described in the last update. The CDM beyond 2012 is still totally open. Sectoral approaches could be under the CDM but even this is unclear. The G77 are talking about policies and measures for sustainable development. Best outcome from today's viewpoint - enlarge scope, sectoral CDM operational, be a part of future negotiation. That should be in mandate decision.

Technology Transfer: Yesterday a stand-off in SBI on TT cost three hours of stalled negotiations. The conflict looks like a legal argument but is in fact political. SBI has established a contact group about TT moving into SBI.
The Chinese proposed a Technology Cooperation Platform - bringing together governments and private actors. An interesting move as it shows that the Chinese are flexible and pragmatic in an issue that has their highest attention.

Response measures: This subject was originally created because OPEC - led by Saudi Arabia
- insisted on being compensated by oil consuming countries for a potential loss of income through fuel switch and energy saving measures. Now the subject is moving beyond the Saudis: unintended consequences are getting a wider audience - e.g. coal in South Africa and won't be an export good anymore. Products form organic farming from Thailand that might not be exported to Europe because of emissions.

Finance and trade ministers meeting
This weekend, a meeting of finance and a meeting of trade ministers are
scheduled to take place outside of the UN Conference.

Trade Ministers will talk about the US and EU proposal to work on tax
barriers on clean technology. Finance Ministers will also report on this
to the COP.
Read more!

Blue Awards

Islands Magazine's December issue is featuring "Blue Awards" for sustainable tourism. Fiji's Cousteau resort received one - and it would be great if any of us could get a copy of the magazine and find out how many Pacific resorts made the list.

Island’s Magazine Editorial Director, Ty Sawyer explains the meaning of the award in this excerpt:

“It’s no longer a fringe group that wants to save the planet. Its become a worldwide phenomenon borne of the necessity to save and sustain all those cultures and places that make the world and incredible place to experience. So we here at ISLANDS decided to celebrate, support and honor the places and people who are so important to islands travel, those who have taken up the challenge to make responsible and sustainable tourism practices a vital part of the way they do business and, more importantly, the way they live. To celebrate these incredible and on-going achievements, we’ve put together our inaugural BLUE LIST and launched our ISLANDS Global Sustainable Tourism Awards, which we’ve dubbed THE BLUE AWARDS.

And here is the synopsis from the magazine website

The Blue List
We've done all the hard work for you. We've looked in every nook and cranny, under every palm tree, on every beach, in countless resorts, under the sea and on islands everywhere for people and places that have embraced, nurtured and protected the amazingly diverse natural and cultural heritage of our planet. What we've discovered on this journey is how incredible the world is and how it inspires us as island travelers. This issue is a celebration of the leaders and innovators in sustainable tourism, people committed to preserving everything that is unique about our island experiences. In these pages, you'll find 100 of the best of the best — our Blue List. Blue, of course, because islands are defined by water.

THE WINNERS » 54 We've also established the annual ISLANDS Global Sustainable Tourism Awards. You'll find the first five winners — Wakatobi Dive Resort (pg. 59), Seacology (pg. 62), Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort (pg. 71), Kosrae Village (pg. 81), and Nihiwatu (pg. 92) — among those on the list. But in the end, anyone who contributes to the preservation of the island dream deserves a commendation. Read more!

Daily Brief from Bali - Wednesday, 5 December

Wednesday 5 December

Put clean technology where it's needed, says WWF

THE LATEST - Technology transfer is one of the key elements in deploying
solutions to climate change around the world. New technology to reduce
carbon emissions is becoming more affordable every day, but the
technology needs to be widely available to the countries, companies, and
communities that most need it.

THE QUOTE - "Technology transfer and cooperation is an essential part of
any post-2012 climate deal and is moving centre stage in the
negotiations in Bali," says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF's Global
Climate Change Programme. "The shift to a cleaner, safer economy is
doable, affordable and in many ways beneficial; governments from around
the world should keep an open mind and bring technology cooperation
right to the heart of the formal negotiations on the Bali mandate."

Read more!

Bali Policy Update from WWF

OVERALL:
At the conference opening yesterday (3 Dec) the different country groupings showed their first hand. After the official opening, both tracks and both subsidiary bodies opened as well, with heated discussions already emerging in at least one.

Besides the first possible confrontations (see further down) there is also a set of possible early wins - countries are keen to ensure those as that would help them to explain what the conference is about, especially to the domestic public. The possible early wins include finalization of the adaptation Fund and REDD - Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.

One overall aspect here is that on linking mitigation and adaptation - an issue that WWF has pushed for years. This thinking is now starting to pervade the system, as several statements showed. This is helpful politically because it demonstrates that countries realize how much they are bound together in these negotiations.

There is also a proliferation of ideas on funds, which is not a realistic way forward. The UNFCCC has already got 3 funds and a plethora of new ones would not get funded and be useless. At some stage these ideas will have to be pulled together - we are on the look-out for initiatives in this direction.

The intervention from the NGOs in CAN Climate Action Network to the plenary was given by WWF Indonesia's head of communications, Elshinta Marsden.

ADAPTATION:
Adaptation has lost its image of afterthought and is now square on the agenda. A number of key States form G77+ as well as the EU made it a central point in their opening statements. It appears both under the Convention and in the AWG.

Least developed countries (LDC) and AOSIS (small islands states) are calling for a strong link between mitigation and adaptation.

One relatively new aspect is the inclusion of bunker fuels in the adaptation fund.

Generally there is no contention between the countries on this issue. But the heat is rising when it comes to the governance structure of the Adaptation Fund (AF) which has not been sorted for two years: Both the US and the EU want to put the AF under the governance of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The G77 are rejecting the GEF proposal and want to put the management of the AF under the UNFCCC secretariat - there are parallels to this proposals, namely in the Montreal Protocol.

Here in Bali, GEF is lobbying wildly at the side lines - Bali is generally seen as the place where the blockage on the fund could finally be raised and things might move - so that Least Developed Countries could start to receive funds.

This will continue to keep us busy today in the SBI. There is lots of work being done on the adaptation fund is behind the scenes - there seems to be a feeling that resolution is possible. WWF had put forward criteria WHEN???? which we now see being used by some Parties in the negotiations (very satisfactory). WWF is also preparing interventions jointly with Oxfam and others.

CARBON MARKETS and CDM
Not yet really started but we have helped to cause some action with in the Climate Action Network (CAN) working group to get prepared for heavy action - including an Eco article for tomorrow. WWF is leading the CAN working group on CDM.

CDM will however come up for the first time in today's morning session of SBSTA. Three topics are particularly relevant: the inclusion of CCS, Include hydroflurorcarbons (HFC) in the CDM, and the limit small scale forest sinks (now limited to 8 kilotons per year in project size).

REDD:
Several major delegations mentioned their desire to have a resolution. Degradation was mentioned several times. Formal negotiations start this morning under SBSTA. An intervention form CAN is foreseen this morning which WWF has heavily contributed to.

On-going efforts by CAN to forge a position are finally bearing fruit (to Ken's relieve) - we expect a decision on that today; However, lack in terms of focus and details on some key elements mean that WWF will want to define those ourselves.

Intervention scheduled for SBSTA this morning. Ken has heavily contributed to that.

The big issue is how to integrate REDD with the post-2012 negotiations as much of the REDD discussion so far was under the Convention.

TECH TRANSFER
The current mandate of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer EGTT comes to an end here in Bali (it was already prolonged for one year in Nairobi). So a decision on how to deal with technology transfer (TT) - under which structure and set-up - is needed urgently. TT is a crucial topic - technology will be needed both for mitigation and adaptation, and instruments span from information exchange to financial support. Copy right issues are amongst the contested.

Yesterday, China came out saying that the current slow pace of EGTT leads to a lock-in effect and is too slow. China proposed the idea of a technology collaboration platform, showing new flexibility in an issue which is pivotal to the Chinese effort here in Bali.
China has been moving since Vienna, it is very serious but not married to one particular format.

The big struggle however - which held up negotiations for 2.5 hours - was that G77 came out with a differing view on the agenda, wanting to link TT to SBI as well as to SBSTA.

The EU supported the current EGTT work - it should continue but with an elaborated mandate, such as a think tank. EGTT should also support the post-2012 negotiations.

The CAN Technology working group will be meeting the delegations of 10 different countries during this week, and has started to work on a variety of other tasks. John from WWF Denmark is one of the two coordinators of this group.


RESOURCES:
Check out today's ECO at the CAN website www.climatenetwork.org
And the WWF website. www.panda.org/climate Read more!

Pacific villagers seek help at Bali climate

From The Associated Press
December 4, 2007 Tuesday 4:56 AM GMT

Fleeing rising seas, Pacific villagers seek help at Bali climate conference
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
KILU Papua New Guinea

Squealing pigs lit out for the bush and Filomena Taroa herded the grandkids to higher ground last week when the sea rolled in deeper than anyone had ever seen. What was happening? "I don't know," the sturdy, barefoot grandmother told a visitor. "I'd never experienced it before."

As scientists warn of rising seas from global warming, more and more reports are coming in from villages like this one on Papua New Guinea's New Britain island of flooding from unprecedented high tides. It's happening not only to low-lying atolls, but to shorelines from Alaska to India.

This week, by boat, bus and jetliner, a handful of villagers are converging on Bali, Indonesia, to seek help from the more than 180 nations gathered at the U.N. climate conference. The coastal dwellers' plight once theoretical appears all too real in 2007, and is spreading and worsening.

Scientists project that seas expanding from warmth and from the runoff of melting land ice may displace millions of coastal inhabitants worldwide in this century if heat-trapping industrial emissions are not sharply curtailed.

A Europe-based research group, the Global Governance Project, will propose at the two-week Bali meeting that an international fund be established to resettle "climate refugees."

Summarizing the islanders' plight, Ursula Rakova said: "We don't have vehicles, an airport. We're merely victims of what is happening with the industrialized nations emitting `greenhouse gases.'"

The sands of Rakova's islands, the Carteret atoll northeast of Bougainville island, have been giving way to the sea for 20 years. The saltwater has ruined their taro gardens, a food staple, and has contaminated their wells and flooded homesteads. The remote islands now suffer from chronic hunger.

The national government has appropriated $800,000 to resettle a few Carteret families on Bougainville, out of 3,000 islanders.

"That's not enough," Rakova told The Associated Press in Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby. "The islands are getting smaller. Basically, everybody will have to leave."

In a landmark series of reports this year, the U.N. climate-science network reported seas rose by a global average of about 0.12 inches annually from 1993 to 2003, as compared with about 0.08 inches annually for the period 1961-2003.

But a 2006 study by Australian oceanographers found the rise was much higher, almost one inch every year, in parts of the western Pacific and Indian oceans.

"It turns out the ocean sloshes around," said the University of Tasmania's Nathaniel Bindoff, a lead author on oceans in the U.N. reports. "It's moving, and so on a regional basis the ocean's movement is causing sea-level variations ups and downs."

Regional temperatures and atmospheric conditions, currents, undersea and shoreline topography are all factors contributing to sea levels. On some atolls, which are the above-water remnants of ancient volcanoes, the coral underpinnings are subsiding and adding to the sinking effect.

The oceanic "sloshing" is steadily taking land from such western Pacific island nations as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. In Papua New Guinea, reports have trickled in this year of fast-encroaching tides on shorelines of the northern island province of Manus, the mainland peninsular village of Malasiga and the Duke of York Islands off New Britain.

International media attention paid to the Carteret Islands, the best-known case, seems to have drawn out others, said Papua New Guinea's senior climatologist, Kasis Inape.

"Most of the low-lying islands and atolls are in the same situation," Inape said in Port Moresby.

Here in Kilu on the Bismarck Sea, on a brilliant blue bay ringed by smoldering volcanoes, swaying coconut palms and thin-walled homes on stilts, the invading waves last year forced some villagers to move their houses inland 20 or more yards taking along their pigs, chickens and fears of worse to come.

It did, on Nov. 25, when the highest waters yet sent them scurrying.

"We think the sea is rising," said 20-year-old villager Joe Balele. "We don't know why."

The scene is repeated on shores across the Pacific, most tragically on tiny island territories with no "inland" to turn to.

Preparing to head to Bali to present her people's case Tuesday at the U.N. climate conference, Rakova searched for words to explain what was happening back home.

"Our people have been there 300 or 400 years," she said. "We'll be moving away from the islands we were born in and grew up in. We'll have to give up our identity." Read more!

Daily Brief from Bali - Tuesday 4 December

Paradise Lost - Beautiful Bali under threat from Climate Change

THE LATEST As delegates make their way to the UN's Climate Change Summit on the tropical island paradise of Bali, they must not let the surroundings fool them. Paradiseis under threat from rising sea levels, warming oceans and increases in extreme weather events. WWF says that developed nations should take the lead and take greater responsibility in emission reductions. Financial resources will have to be provided by the international community to help developing countries adapt to the damaging effects of climate change.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The devastating impacts of climate change reach across the globe, but in the near-term those most at risk, and least responsible, are developing countries," says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme. "It's the flood-prone
mega-deltas, such as Bangladesh, and drought-prone parts of Africa and Asia that are most at risk right now. The Bali Summit gives world leaders a small window of opportunity to respond and agree to set deeper cuts in CO2 emissions."

Background: In 1992, most countries joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to fight global warming and to adapt to the inevitable temperature increases. Fifteen years later Indonesia is hosting the third Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP3) in conjunction with the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP13) in Bali from 3 to 14 December.
The Bali conference will be the culmination of a momentous twelve months in the international climate debate. Over the past year, overwhelming scientific evidence of global warming, set out in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), put the reality of human-induced global warming beyond any reasonable doubt.

Key Issues:
· Governments attending the UN's Climate Change Summit in Bali in December must make deeper cuts in emissions post-2012.
· Governments of rich countries must increase funding for climate change adaptation in less developed countries.
· The world must cut emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of this century.

Materials for the Media:
Press Pack - All backgrounders, press work, photos, reports etc at
http://www.panda.org/climate.
TV Footage - For broadcast-standard video, please contact the Media
Team.
Online - Blog at www.panda.org/climate/blog. Global map of climate
change impacts at www.panda.org/climate/ipcc.
Spokespeople:
Hans Verolme, WWF's Global Climate Change Programme, +1 202 492 7358, hans.verolme@wwfus.org.
Fitrian Ardiansyah, WWF-Indonesia's Climate Change Programme, +62 812 9355 105,
fardiansyah@wwf.or.id.

Media team:
Brian Thomson (English, French, Italian) t +62 813 1808 5548, btomson@wwfint.org.
Martin Hiller (English, German, French) t+62 813 1875 9492,mhiller@wwfint.org.
Elshinta Marsden (English, Bahasa Indonesia) t +62 8161806321, esmarsden@wwf.or.id. Mariana Ramos (Portuguese, English, Spanish) t +62 813 1860 2114 marianaramos@wwf.org.br Soh Koon Chng (English, French), t +62 813 1860 2127 skchng@wwfint.org.
Read more!

Climate change hits women the hardest: report

The Hindu - India's National Newspaper
03 December - Staff reporter

NEW DELHI: “Women pay the highest price for climate change as the world fails to adapt. International efforts to help poor women — the world’s most vulnerable — to adapt to climate change will fail unless urgent action is taken,” states a joint report released recently by the international anti-poverty agency Action Aid and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS).

Raman Mehta, who leads Action Aid’s work on climate change in India, said: “Women are hit hardest by climate change because they have fewer means to be able to adapt and prepare for extreme weather conditions made worse by climate change.”

Citing an example from the flood affected regions in the country, Mr. Mehta said: “During our flood rescue operations in the Muzzafarpur district of Bihar this year, we noted that women were bearing the brunt of the adverse conditions. The reasons are many, under economic stress, women have to handle everything. With husbands sometimes migrating for work, they end up facing the challenges alone.” The report also indicates how poor women struggle to cope with the impact of global warming and presents first-hand testimonies on what they think adaptation funds should be spent on. The report urges governments to give women, who are on the frontline of climate change, an equal say in adaptation financing to ensure funds support poor women.

“Our research shows that although poor women are one of the groups most affected by climate change, they also have clear priorities for adaptation – for example having a safe place to store harvest and livestock during the monsoon season,” said Tom Mitchell, research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies. “For adaptation funding to be effective it is crucial that poor women’s needs are reflected in policies and interventions for adaptation to climate change.” Read more!

Climate Change and the Media

Check your inboxes! Va just sent around a fantastic article about how climate change is covered in the media and where we need to go. If you need a copy, just let me know!

The science tells us that a window of opportunity is about to slam shut on our collective fingers. The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change says there are just two years left to negotiate a stronger, fairer global agreement on how to address climate change. Massive shifts in policy and in public behaviour will be necessary to keep greenhouse gas concentrations below a dangerous level and to adapt to the changes that are already inevitable. The media and those it relies on for information will play an increasing role in whether or not a revolution happens and how it plays out if it does.

The good news is that the climate is not the only thing that is changing.

- Shanahan, M. (2007) Talking about a revolution: climate change and the media. An IIED Briefing Development. International Institute for Environment and Development
Read more!

Fellows Bylines: 2 December 2007

Global fight against gas emissions



By ALUMECI NAKEKE


02 December 2007




When there is a cyclone, flooding or drought most people in Fiji call it a natural disaster but most are not because they are human induced, which results in climate change.
The unpredictable weather nowadays may make some people think that the gods are unhappy
But now people in the Pacific are starting to wake up as they realise that it is the effect of greenhouse gas emissions and now it is about time they make more noises as the United Nations Climate Change Conference begins today in Bali.



While bigger countries are continuing with their harmful emissions, smaller islands like Fiji are suffering.
Samoa's first environment non-governmental organisation, Ole Siosiomaga Society Inc executive director Fiu Mata'ese Elisara-Laulu who was in Fiji recently and will also be in Bali said countries in the Pacific were making the right noises about the issue on greenhouse gas emissions.



"The International Panel on Climate Change comprising more than 1000 renowned scientists have proven that global warming was human induced and it was affecting the whole issue of climate change," he said.
"And therefore because global warming was not only causing cyclones and sea level rise, it was also about health issues as well. When you start to have floods it impacts our water that our people depend on and also affects sanitation and even droughts."



He said oil producing countries were also doing their homework by paying other scientists to disprove the findings by the IPCC scientists and negate it.
"What we are worried about is that climate change in itself is becoming a business," said Mr Elisara-Laulu.



At the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries had been given a quota on the amount of greenhouse gas they could emit but another concept emanating from the Kyoto Protocol was the Clean Development Mechanism and this was where carbon trading came in.



"It is basically saying, if I am an industrialised country and given a quota of greenhouse gases that I could emit every year, once my quota is over, that means I cannot continue to produce industrialised goods. So, what I do is negotiate with other small islands in the Pacific like Samoa or Fiji and say, 'Can I please give you small Clean Development Mechanism projects by sending you some money and buying your quota so that I can continue'," explained Mr Elisara-Laulu.
Fiji is one those countries, which has received such "guilt money" and this was confirmed by Director of Environment Epeli Nasome. The assistance was used to fund two hydro projects for the Fiji Electricity Authority, which are Vaturu and Wainikasou.



However, Mr Elisare-Laulau said even the Kyoto Protocol was inadequate because IPCC worked out that we needed more than close to 70 per cent cut to the greenhouse gas emissions.
"Our problem is that it is coined under CDM and our governments see that as development revenue resources. Our accepting that is a means of getting resources for our development but at the end of the day the philosophical we have been saying all along is cutting greenhouse gasses is causing all our problems and we are enabling them to continue."



But he said the charter of the United Nations basically gave all countries equal rights and all Pacific countries had the same rights to exist as a nation, as a people and as cultures like any other country in the world.



Our two neighbours Australia and New Zealand had not signed the Kyoto Protocol but newly elected Australian Prime Minister according to The Australian had told world leaders that Australia woul0d ratify the Kyoto Protocol and had ordered senior bureaucrats to move quickly to draft new industrial relations. He had also accepted Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's invitation to attend the climate change summit in Bali.
He said it was an issue for those in the Pacific because Australia was their neighbor and also providing leadership but was aligning itself to other industrialised countries because of economic interests.
"It thereby tries to avoid its responsibilities on climate change and therefore becomes a big issue for us. And for us accepting clean development mechanism resources to adapt to climate change is another big issue – that is giving us the responsibility as if we were part of the causes," he said.



"We have been fighting for long-term responsibilities by the industrialised countries and it should have been accepted by them but unfortunately they are asking us to adapt. We contribute very little to climate change and yet we are still accepting those resources for adaptation projects.



However, some of the countries like United States and Australia and other industrialised have still not signed the Kyoto Protocol but it is amazing that climate change has now come right to their doorsteps.



"This is evident in the happenings of cyclone Katrina in the US, the droughts in Europe and also in Australia and it is only recently that these countries are now starting to address climate change seriously as it is a very global priority now."



Last month 150 countries met in New York and more than 80 heads of government attended and the large turnout was because they had seen the effects of climate change and has forced them and forces them to act.
"After that meeting President Bush called a meeting in Washington DC for 16 of the most industrialised countries of the world but unfortunately, instead of aligning themselves to targets that was set up by UN conventions they started looking at voluntary commitments.



"And it is up to them to voluntarily to meet the targets on the Kyoto Protocol and also on the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change. And we view this with concern and skepticism because it undermines the UN negotiation process for international binding treaty for very hard commitments and timeframe as the Kyoto protocol will end in 2012," he added. Read more!