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Category Archives: World Bank Funds
Bolivia summit to seeks global climate deal
Thousands of people, mostly members of social movements and indigenous groups, are expected to attend the People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights from April 20-22.Organizers say it is intended to “give a voice to the people” on climate change after the perceived failure of the United Nations-sponsored Copenhagen summit on the same issue.Solon said he expected participants from 94 countries and representatives from 70 governments to attend, without giving further details.
via AFP: Bolivia summit to seek global climate change referendum.
Posted in Climate, Coal, Countries, Map, Opposing Views, Politics, UNFCCC, World Bank Funds, solar
Tagged Bolivia, Climate Change, evo, Morales
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Who is Africa Climate?
Africa Climate is a portal where news about Africa, that affect Africa and are linked to development in general are posted. You can join the list of followers, contributors using the various social networking tools. The focus is in general climate change. But then.. what is climate change? Climate Change is about everything! It is about YOU! 
Posted in Climate, Coal, Floods, Freeze, Map, Opposing Views, Politics, UNFCCC, World Bank Funds, solar
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Copenhagen has given us the chance to face climate change with honesty | Environment | The Observer
In today's indulgences the sinners, developed countries, buy off developing countries by paying for “offsets” to their own emissions and providing reparation money for adaptation to climate change. But such hush money won't work. Yes, some developing country leaders salivated over the proffered $100 billion per year. But by buying in, they would cheat their children and ours. Besides, even the $100 billion hush money is fugacious. The US, based on its proportion of the fossil fuel carbon in the air today, would owe $27 billion per year. Chance of Congress providing that: dead zero. Maybe the UK will cough up its $6 billion per year and Germany its $7 billion per year. But who will collect Russia's $7 billion per year?
Posted in Climate, Opposing Views, Politics, UNFCCC, World Bank Funds
Tagged James Hansen
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G8 summit to pledge $15 billion to boost food supply | Green Business | Reuters – Udongo
It said the combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture, price volatility and the economic crisis had led to increased poverty and hunger in developing countries.
The United Nations says the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines.
The statement said the G8 summit kept a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food assistance, but its focus on agricultural investments reflects a U.S.-led shift toward longer-term strategies to fight hunger.
via G8 summit to pledge $15 billion to boost food supply | Green Business | Reuters – Udongo.
Posted in Climate, Countries, Politics, World Bank Funds
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Climate change complacency in Africa: It is not our fault?
Human induced cumulative environmental tweaks are leading to Climate Change
As Africa prepares to celebrate Earth Day this week, there is a growing unease as new scientific evidence puts Africa square in the same carbon foot print with India and China in contributing towards climate change. Africa has been very vocal about climate change (the scenario of global warming), and not willing to shoulder any blame about green house gas emissions, until the latest NASA black carbon report.
Lately however, the issue of landuse change especially deforestation has been discussed at length and there is almost consensus that forestry needs all the different forms of support to arrest the continued degradation. REDD has become a favourite tool and most African States are in favour. A few civil society organisations are however critical and questioning the design of the model.
Agriculture on the other hand remains a topic outside the climate change discussions despite it being at high risk and a main livelihood for the 500 million inhabitants of Africa. Agriculture is one of the most central issue towards the security of Africa and the survival of its people. The focus has remained in the protecting the forestry sector and promoting good practice in an area where options have yet to be identified; eg where will the locals get their fuel wood, building material etc.
The question of Africas contribution to climate change has narrowed down to what Africa can get out of the global Financial mechanisms, but little in terms of the innovation that can come from this continent. In fact, it is becoming almost gospel that “our own home grown problems” of poor governance and environmental corruption are no longer issues and it all boils down to climate change. Whether it is illegal logging, inept politicians, poor land policies, self driven land degradation, the blame has shifted to global warming or climate change.
It is the high time we faced the reality, the short term fluctuations do not negate the fact that “there is human induced” environmental changes whose cumulative effect is leading to Climate Change, and especially so in Africa!!
Posted in Climate, Politics, UNFCCC, World Bank Funds
Tagged adaptation, Africa, Agriculture, black carbon, Climate, Climate Change, complacency, COP 15, global warming, NASA, Soil, UNFCCC, WB Carbon
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The cost of corruption on climate change
by Evans Wafula
It was indeed heartrending watching those angry waves from the Indian Ocean causing such devastation to the countries in Asia affected by the tsunami.
In fact Africa suffered too. This tsunami will forever be remembered as one of the most devastating natural disasters in living memory. The high-tech media presence means that a lot more people will learn about this disaster, in a way unimaginable say some 25 years ago. The human cost is enormous, so too is the economic cost. Given that most of the affected countries earn a lot of their national income from the very seas that poured out angrily, through tourism and fishing, many analysts believe that the economic costs will increase further.
What are the real lessons from the tsunami disaster? For starters, the tsunami exposed the hypocrisy and cynicism with which we treat human and natural disasters. In the United Kingdom for instance, people gave generously to the victims of the disaster. At some stage donations in Britain topped one million pounds an hour and total collected in that country was more than £100 million. Very impressive indeed. But while the money given by the public was new money, the money pledged by the British government was much higher. As the world pondered on why the already poor people along the coast of Asia could be subjected to such pain, it should also reflect on the pain of the millions others far away from the tsunami but yet living under of facing similar circumstances paused by the threat of climate change. It is also worth noting that the effect of the tsunami was massive because among other things majority of these people lived in vulnerable conditions aggravated by poverty.
Analysts and more especially scientists believe that the lack of an early warning system increased the effect of the tsunami and especially the lose of life. It is argued that governments of the region could not afford to invest in such high technology equipment due to costs and probably was not even a factor until after the tsunami. It is not appropriate to lay blame or point fingers, but the fact of the matter is that the tsunami blew away perhaps more than 200,000 lives and caused the world to grieve. The scale of donations and outpouring of grief showed that majority of the people in the world really care about human life.
Posted in World Bank Funds
Tagged Climate Change, Corruption, Kenya, REDD, World Bank Funds
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Climate Change and World Bank- Africa
December 6, 2007 - Representatives from 190 nations are meeting in Bali, Indonesia from December 3 – 14 to address challenges linked to global climate change. The meeting marks the start of negotiations leading to what the United Nations hopes will be a renewal and extension of the Kyoto Protocol. A delegation from the World Bank, led by President Robert B. Zoellick, will join the conference.
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On the eve of the global gathering, the World Bank’s lead climate change specialist for Africa and a member of the Bali delegation Aziz Bouzaher discussed the impact of climate change on Africa, and Bank actions to help client countries adapt to and mitigate it. How is the World Bank’s Africa Region responding to climate change? AB: The Africa region is responding swiftly, as is the entire institution, to the emerging needs linked to climate change. Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of a number of things: the high dependence on natural resources, the low availability of infrastructure, the extent of poverty and the low level of institutional capacity to respond. The region is also predicted to be hardest hit in terms of catastrophic natural disasters. So we are developing a robust strategy and will be consulting with our clients and partners along the way. That strategy is to mainstream climate change into our operations and develop capacity to respond quickly – and effectively – to client needs.We have a framework with four pillars: The core pillar is adaptation. If the climate changes, you have to adapt. This pillar covers agriculture, energy, health, land management, forestry, biodiversity and fisheries, disaster preparedness, and coastal areas. The second pillar is building institutional knowledge and strengthening country capacity so that institutions are better able to deal with climate change. Third is to take advantage of mitigation opportunities, in other words to reduce emissions. The fourth and final pillar is to mobilize financing (including from the International Development Association, the World Bank Group’s concessional lending arm) and piloting new, innovative market-based carbon instruments to help our countries gain access to new funding sources. Is this strategy part of the Region’s larger ongoing work?
AB: A lot of the response to climate change is already built into current Bank policies and programs. For example, in Madagascar which is prone to cyclones, we are working on developing disaster preparedness. We are building the capacity and the tools and policies for the country to be better prepared. In some of our work on agriculture and water management, we are dealing with issues of drought and of the predicted high variability in water resources due to climate variability. In the energy sector, we have decidedly moved toward more clean energy. Our work on biofuels is contributing to the reduction of emissions. |
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