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	Climate Change Impacts on the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by Realizing Rights / GCAP / GCCA   Sept 2010   A recently released report prepared by Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, with inputs from the Global Call Against Poverty (GCAP) and the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA) calls on government leaders, bilateral and multilateral development institutions, and donors to integrate policies and practices to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with those that address climate change.   The report warns that climate change is threatening progress on the MDGs, highlighting that millions of people around the world, but particularly in developing countries, are already experiencing the negative impacts of a changing climate. To quote from the report:   “Climate change arguably poses the greatest threat to reducing poverty, advancing global development, and realizing human rights the world has ever seen. People in developing countries are not responsible for the climate crisis, but they are paying the highest price. It is the poorest nations, and the poorest communities within them, including women and indigenous communities, which are experiencing negative climatic effects most immediately and most powerfully.”   Although the linkages between climate change and development are clear cut, they have not been sufficiently considered in international development policy and practice. The report highlights: “in too many contexts, climate change is still a footnote to MDG implementation.”   Therefore, at the national level, the report urges governments to integrate MDG planning, monitoring, and reporting mechanisms with national adaptation programs of action for climate change (NAPAs); to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources; to adopt the principles of climate justice; and to ensure the effective and meaningful participation of communities affected by climate change in the design and implementation of adaptation and mitigation programs.   It calls upon the international community to use the international human rights framework as the basis to link the implementation of the MDGs to climate change; to take a climate justice stance; to prioritize funding and the transfer of skills and knowledge for low-carbon technologies in developing countries; to create a mechanism to track the effects of climate change on the MDGs, and vice versa; to commit to limiting the global average temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius; and to ensure that new, additional and innovative financial resources pledged for climate change adaptation in developing countries are indeed forthcoming.   To further explain the nexus between climate change and the MDGs, the report provides examples of various projects and initiatives around the world that actively addressed this nexus, e.g. in analysis, problem-solving and policy making, and consequently strengthened the resilience and resourcefulness of communities. Visit the related web page
	Torpor on emissions must end by Anthony Giddens and Martin Rees United Kingdom   Sept 20, 2010   This year has seen outbreaks of extreme weather in many regions of the world. No one can say with certainty that events such as the flooding in Pakistan, the unprecedented weather episodes in some parts of the US, the heatwave and drought in Russia, or the floods and landslides in northern China were influenced by climate change. Yet they constitute a stark warning. Extreme weather events will grow in frequency and intensity as the world warms.   No binding agreements were reached at the meetings in Copenhagen last December. Leaked emails between scientists at the University of East Anglia, claimed by critics to show manipulation of data, received a great deal of attention - as did errors found in the volumes produced by the UN''s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Many newspapers, especially on the political right, have carried headlines that global warming has either stopped or is no longer a problem.   It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the core scientific findings about human-induced climate change and the dangers it poses for our collective future remain intact. The most important relevant fact is based on uncontroversial measurements: the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is higher than it has been for at least the last half-million years. It has risen by 30 per cent since the start of the industrial era, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels. If the world continues to depend on fossil fuels to the extent it does today, carbon dioxide will reach double pre-industrial levels within the next half-century. This build-up is triggering long-term warming, the physical reasons for which are well-known and demonstrable in the laboratory.   Data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that this year is set to be the warmest year globally since their records began in 1880. June was the 304th consecutive month with a land and ocean temperature above the 20th-century average. Last year, the administration analysed findings from some 50 independent records monitoring temperature change, involving 10 separate indices. All 10 indicators showed a clear pattern of warming over the past half-century.   A renewed drive is demanded to wake the world from its torpor. The catastrophic events noted above should provide the stimulus. The floods in Pakistan have left some 20 million people homeless. Pakistan cannot be left to founder - but neither can other poor countries, many of which are vulnerable to catastrophic weather events.   World leaders should expedite and accelerate the discussions currently under way to provide large-scale funding for poorer countries to develop the infrastructure to cope with future weather shocks.   The United States and China are far and away the biggest polluters in the world, contributing well over 40 per cent of total global emissions. The European Union is pursuing progressive policies in containing the carbon emissions of its member states. Yet whatever the EU and the rest of the world do, if the US and China do not alter their current policies there is little or no hope of containing climate change.   The US has 4 per cent of the world''s population but churns out 25 per cent of the world''s carbon emissions. It must assume a greater leadership role in world efforts to curb climate change. President Barack Obama should reassert that containing climate change is one of the highest priorities of his administration.   Positive initiatives are happening at the level of local communities, third-sector organisations, cities and states. These groups must exert pressure on many different levels to promote a significant reduction in emissions across the whole US.   China''s leaders show increasing awareness of how vulnerable their country is to climate change, and are investing in renewable technologies and nuclear power on a substantial scale. However, China''s carbon emissions are steadily increasing. It has the right and the need to develop, but much clearer plans than seem to exist at present are needed to show how the country intends to move away from its existing high-carbon path. The Chinese leadership should formulate such plans, make them public and open them up for international scrutiny.   The current emphasis on improving energy efficiency is important, but nowhere near enough to seriously chart such a path.   Russia is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed targets the country should adopt, but as they stand they are empty. Calculated against a 1990 baseline, they are accounted for simply by the decline of the country''s uncompetitive heavy industries.   Above all, a renewed impetus to international collaboration is required. The meetings of the UN to be held at Cancun in December carry little promise of initiating policies on the scale needed. The US, China, the EU and other major states such as Brazil and India, with due attention paid to the interests of smaller nations, should work with a greater sense of urgency.   Finally, limiting carbon emissions won''t happen solely through regulation and target-setting: innovation - social, economic and technological - will be central. Enlightened business leaders should step up their attempts to this end. The actions needed to counter this threat - the transition to a lifestyle dependent on clean and efficient energy - will create manifold new economic opportunities.   * Anthony Giddens is former director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, a fellow of King''s College, Cambridge and the author of The Politics of Climate Change. Martin Rees is president of the Royal Society, London. He was this year''s BBC Reith lecturer.
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