News feedsUN Climate Change Conference
COP14 1 -12 December 2008, Poznan, Poland
The 14th Conference of the Parties (COP) for the UN climate change convention is over – a major step on the road to the next conference, to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.
We can look back with pride on our work at Poznan. Together with the European Capacity Building Initiative, we enabled negotiators from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to come together and discuss their needs and strategies and gain experience in the negotiation process. And with Panos and InterNews, we supported 37 Southern journalists in raising awareness of climate change issues in their countries.
Our hotly anticipated Development and Climate Days -- with associated film festival -- have become a flagship event and this year drew in more than 600 participants from 72 countries. The final session on funding adaptation, chaired by IIED director Camilla Toulmin, was standing room only.
The COP in Poznan was a vital last chance for countries, or groups of countries, to make sure their ideas and proposals for the Copenhagen agreement were tabled. The next 12 months will be a negotiating marathon, and one that, with our partners, we will be contributing to every step of the way. Stay on top of the news and views throughout the process by visiting our negotiations and capacity building section.
Poznań Blogs
Fingers up for Climate Action
By Mike Shanahan on 02/12/2008
Welcome to Poznan
By Vanessa Mcleod-Kourie on 02/12/2008
Exchanging experiences
By Vanessa on 04/12/2008
Knowing your team mates
By Beth Henriette on 04/12/2008
First impressions
By Camilla Toulmin on 05/12/2008
In the belly of the articulated beast
By Barbara Kiser on 07/12/2008
Ideas matter but time is short
By Camilla Toulmin on 07/12/2008
The world-changing power of serendipity
By Barbara Kiser 07/12/2008
Thank you for the days...
By Barbara Kiser on 10/12/2008
Just the beginning
By Camilla 12/12/2008
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Development & Climate Days feedback |
Video Briefings from Poznan |
Virtual Poznan Camilla Toulmin interview |
See also:
Development and Climate Days participants' interviews
Development & Climate Days background
This year Parties aimed to set in motion the Bali Action Plan, a 'roadmap' agreed last year at the climate talks in Bali, intended to steer the negotiations towards agreeing a sucessor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Related Publications
Adaptation in Africa: the global failure to deliver funding
Will Africa be steamrollered by climate change? The continent harbours 33 of the Least Developed Countries, is heavily reliant on agriculture and has limited economic resources to finance adaptation.
Fairer flying: an air travel levy for adaptation
For the world’s poorest countries and communities, adaptation to climate change is urgently needed, but costly: estimates run into tens of billions of dollars a year. Given the shortfall in current international adaptation funding, how can resources for the developing world be raised?
Beyond borders: the need for strategic global adaptation
The ‘adaptation is local’ mantra is no longer valid. Climate impacts are pervasive, inevitably crossing geographic and political boundaries. And they will be severe. Some top scientists now say we should prepare for a rise in global mean surface temperature of 4 °C – even though most impact and adaptation research is based on 2 °C.
First Words. Now action: Time for a new deal on climate change
The IIED Times reproduces some of the climate change related press releases IIED issued in 2008, along with feature and opinion articles written by IIED staff. It is intended to show the range of ways in which the institute works on climate change and to explain how we work to share the findings of our research.
Adaptation funding and development assistance: some FAQs
It’s becoming ever clearer that development and climate change are intertwined issues. Unsustainable development drives climate change; sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to it. Development issues can constrain capacity to adapt to climate change; climate impacts can be a barrier to development.
Against the tide: climate change and high-risk cities
In the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations, most cities and towns face a distinct dual pressure: rapidly growing population and high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Drought, storms, flooding and sea level rise are likely to hit hardest here.
Building resilience: how the urban poor can drive climate adaptation
Adaptation – preparing for and coping with climate impacts – is now a key issue in climate negotiations. This is real progress from a decade ago, when mitigation alone dominated the climate agenda. But adaptation itself needs to move on. The 900 million urban dwellers living in poverty worldwide will likely be among the worst affected by climate change, yet they hardly feature in adaptation policies and practices.
Climate Change and Urban Children: Impacts and Implications for Adaptation
This paper discusses the probable impacts for children of different ages from the increasing risk of storms, flooding, landslides, heat waves, drought and water supply constraints that climate change is likely to bring to most urban centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Fuelling exclusion? The biofuels boom and poor people's access to land
What are the impacts of the increasing spread of biofuels on access to land in producer countries, particularly for poorer rural people? Biofuels could revitalise rural agriculture and livelihoods – or, where there are competing claims on land – exclude poorer land and resource users.
Springing back: climate resilience at Africa’s grassroots
Climate change is often seen as a global problem demanding global solutions. But for poor people hit hard by the impacts, climate change is a not a boardroom abstraction, but day-to-day reality. Faced with local shifts in weather patterns and natural resources, they are forced to find ways of coping that are locally relevant.
Taking steps: mainstreaming national adaptation
Climate change poses a massive threat to development. The poorest populations of poor countries – the Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, and the nations of Africa – face the concentrated challenge of tackling the worst of the impacts with the least capacity to do so.
Links
Economics of climate change adaptation in least developed countries
Least Developed Countries & Small Island Developing States' Workshop
IIED work on Community Based Adaptation
Adapting Cities to Climate Change
Capacity Strengthening in Least Developed Countries for Adaptation to Climate Change (CLACC)
Other sites
The European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi)
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC)
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
Official website: United Nations climate change conference in Poznan
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