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	Climate change is already affecting millions of the world"s most vulnerable by IFRC / OCHA / Amnesty International   Dec. 2009   Vulnerable communities and humanitarian agencies have spoken out with the powerful message that "Climate change is already affecting millions of the world"s most vulnerable – we must work together now to help them adapt".   Humanitarian Day events at COP15 highlighted the urgency with which the world community needs to act, to deal with the very real challenges already affecting some of the poorest and vulnerable people in risk-prone countries, especially children and young people.   As key speakers from affected countries, NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement and UN agencies noted throughout the day, these range from hunger and malnutrition, public health threats from disease, and competition over scarce resources such as water, to displacement and migration to safer and more stable environments.   Such unprecedented impacts could overwhelm national governments and global disaster management systems, warned Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, emphasizing that any agreement on adaptation must include disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness measures.   "Disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness and response are vital frontline defences for vulnerable communities, especially in risk-prone parts of the world," he said. "While humanitarian organizations can help reduce the impacts of extreme weather on people, we must support governments in investing in and strengthening disaster management systems now, in order to save lives".   Helping nations and at-risk communities to swiftly and adequately adapt to the changing reality is the overarching priority for all, as evidenced by the testimony of hundreds of climate witnesses, youth representatives and humanitarian leaders today.   "Poor people in developing countries, who bear over 90 per cent of the climate change burden through death, disease, destitution and loss of livelihoods, must be central players in developing adaptation solutions that help the most vulnerable", said Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam Great Britain.   Thirteen year old Sok, from Seda Commune near Kampong Cham in Cambodia, said, "We are suffering a drought and have a lot more hot weather than before, so now our family needs to pump water for our rice fields from sources further away. Our parents cannot manage by themselves, so when the situation is urgent we have to miss school to help them out."   "The interests of the most vulnerable communities will be best served by a strong agreement", underlined the Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Bekele Geleta. "Yet regardless of the outcomes, our focus will remain on supporting the most vulnerable and working with governments, and within communities, to reduce vulnerability."   Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).   Nov. 2009   Political leaders meeting in Copenhagen must reach a fair, ambitious and binding deal on climate change that does not leave out and further disadvantage the world’s poor, say Mary Robinson and Irene Khan. They issued the following joint statement:   The cruel fact about global climate change is that while the problem has largely been caused by emissions from the richest countries, the poorest will pay the price. If governments fail to act in Copenhagen next month, basic human rights for the worlds poorest and most marginalised communities will hang in the balance.   The rights to food, water, shelter and heath all risk being undermined by climate change. There is an urgent need for an ambitious, fair and binding agreement at COP15 in Copenhagen.   Mary Robinson is a former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of the Ethical Globalization Initiative – and Irene Khan is Secretary General of Amnesty International.   Stating that the effects of climate change will be felt most by people experiencing human rights abuses because they are poor or vulnerable, like women and indigenous people, Mary Robinson and Irene Khan cautioned that if governments don"t comply with their human rights obligations when responding to climate change, it could reinforce the links between denial of rights and vulnerability to climate change.   Governments are legally bound to address inequality and non-discrimination and they called for adaptation and mitigation policies to prioritize those whose rights are most at risk through patterns of discrimination.   Warning that billions of the world’s poorest people are adversely affected by climate change and yet are not central to the UN Climate Change Conference, they called for a more people-centered approach to countering climate change and ensuring the future for generations to come. They urged governments to conduct adequate and meaningful consultation with affected people, involving them in decision-making on the adaptation and mitigation strategies that would affect their lives.   “The time has passed when politicians and the public could imagine climate change as problem for the future,” cautioned Mary Robinson. “Climate change is a threat to survival and the realisation of people"s human rights. “If we don’t deal with climate change no one will have a secure world.”   “The fight against poverty and the fight against climate change are an integral fight for the rights of the marginalized peoples of this world,” said Irene Khan. “If we don’t address climate change all gains to eradicate poverty risk being wiped out.”
	Leaked UN Report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C Rise by WWF / COP15 & agencies   20/12/2009   “What we have after two years of negotiation is a half-baked text of unclear substance. With the possible exceptions of US legislation and the beginnings of financial flows, none of the political obstacles to effective climate action have been solved,” Kim Carstensen, Leader of global conservation organization WWF’s Global Climate Initiative, states in a press release.   According to WWF’s estimates, the contents of the Copenhagen Accord translates into “three degrees Celsius of warming or more” and “millions of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars and a wealth of lost opportunities lie in the difference between rhetoric and reality on climate change action.”   The accord “clearly falls well short of what the public around the world was expecting, it’s clearly not enough to keep temperatures on a track below two degrees,” says Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, according to Reuters.   The two degree target is linked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to keeping the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 450 ppm (parts per million).   “Going above 450 parts per million will change everything. It’s not just one or two things. There will be changes in water, food, ecosystems, health, and those changes also interact with each other,” Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA climate impacts researcher, tells AP.   According to Reuters, Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defence Council says that “part of the dysfunction (of the Copenhagen talks) is that China is feeling its way into a new, more powerful role.”   Under the Copenhagen Accord, the countries that sign on will need to declare their national emissions targets. Their measures will be subject to international consultations, but if a country falls short this will have no consequences as the accord isn’t legally binding.   According to AP, Gregg Marland, who keeps track of worldwide carbon dioxide emission at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, thinks that “voluntary carbon reductions fall far short of what’s needed to address climate change. I don’t see people going very far voluntarily without incentives to do it, and that comes from government.”   WWF says attention will now shift to a host of initiatives by countries, cities, companies and communities that are starting to build low carbon economies from the base up.”   “We are disappointed but the story continues. Civil society was excluded from these final negotiations to an extraordinary degree, and that was felt during the concluding days in Copenhagen. We can assure the world, however, that WWF and other elements of civil society will continue engaging in every step of further negotiations,” says WWF’s Kim Carstensen.   Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Oxfam’s Global Ambassador who attended the talks and met with many of the key decision makers in Copenhagen said:   “The failure of the political process in Copenhagen to achieve a fair, adequate and binding deal on climate change is profoundly distressing. A higher purpose was at stake but our political leaders have proven themselves unable to rise to the challenge. We must look to the future. Our leaders must regroup, learn and make good their failure for the sake of humanity’s future.”   18 December 2009   Copenhagen global climate accord fails expectations. (The Guardian)   The outline of a weak global climate agreement was last night concluded in Copenhagen, but it fell far short of what many countries were seeking and leaves months of tough negotiations to come.   The deal - known as the Copenhagen accord - "recognises" the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but did not contain commitments to emissions reductions by countries to hit that goal.   Even US President Obama admitted, "This progress is not enough," he said, "we have come a long way but we have much further to go".   "Climate change threatens us all, therefore we must bridge all divides," he said. "The time has come for us to get off the sidelines and shape the future we seek. "That"s why I believe what we have achieved in Copenhagen will not be the end, but the beginning."   The climate accord bitterly disappointed Africa and other vulnerable countries who had been holding out for far deeper emission cuts in order to hold the global temperature rise to 1.5C this century. As widely expected, all references to 1.5C in previous versions of the agreement were removed at the last minute, but more surprisingly, the earlier 2050 goal of reducing global emissions by 80% was also dropped.   The agreement also sets up a forestry deal which is hoped to significantly reduce deforestation in return for cash. It also lacked the kind of independent verification of emission reductions by developing countries that the United States and others demand.   Britain"s climate change minister Ed Miliband has blamed China for blocking an accord on legally-binding emissions targets and a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse gases by 2050 at the Copenhagen summit.   Miliband admitted on Sunday that the results of the Copenhagen conference were "disappointing" but insisted that progress was made in the fight against global warming.   "The eventual outcome was disappointing. Efforts to give legal backing to the commitments in the Copenhagen accord met with "impossible resistance from a small number of developing countries, including China, who didn"t want a legal agreement", he said.   "If leading countries hold out against something like "legally binding" or against the 2050 target of 50 per cent reductions in carbon emissions - which was held out against by countries like China - you are not going to get the agreement you want."   Many observers also blamed the US for coming to the talks with an offer of just 4% emissions cuts on 1990 levels. The final text made no obligations on developing countries to make cuts.   Negotiators will now continue to work on individual agreements like forests, technology, finance but without strong leadership the chances are that it will take years to complete.   Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the G77 group of 130 developing countries, was scathing: "This deal will result in devastation in Africa and small island states. It has the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It"s nothing short of climate change scepticism in action."   John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said: "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport. There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty."   "This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilizing climate", said a spokesperson for Friends of the earth.   Lydia Baker, Save the Children"s Policy Adviser said: "By signing a sub-standard deal world leaders have effectively signed a death warrant for many of the world"s poorest children. Up to 250,000 children from poor communities could die before the next major meeting in Mexico at the end of next year."   17/12/2009   European Parliament says show global responsibility.   It would be a bad signal for humanity, if leaders of the world fail to reach an agreement on climate change in Copenhagen, says the official delegation from the European Parliament.   Leaders of the world must take the necessary responsibility for a climate change agreement in Copenhagen "Some states still refuse to put forward ambitious proposals for global climate protection. China has to take its responsibility as the largest polluter in the world. An agreement without the major emerging economies would not be enough to halt climate change," says Jo Leinen, head of the official European Parliament delegation at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen.   Dec 17, 2009   Leaked UN Report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C Rise.   A confidential UN analysis obtained by the Guardian reveals that the emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C.   The analysis seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last 24 hours of negotiations will be extremely challenging.   A rise of 3C would mean up to 170 million more people suffering severe coastal floods and 550 million more at risk of hunger, according to the 2006 Stern economic review of climate change for the UK government - as well as leaving up to 50% of species facing extinction. Even a rise of 2C would lead to sharp decline in tropical crop yields, more flooding and droughts.   The paper was drafted by the UN secretariat running the Copenhagen summit and is dated 11pm on Tuesday evening. It is marked "do not distribute" and "initial draft". It shows a gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of carbon emissions between the present pledges and the required level of 44Gt, which is required to staying below a 2C rise. No higher offers have since been made.   "Unless the remaining gap of around 1.9-4.2Gt is closed and Annexe 1 parties [countries] commit themselves to strong action before and after 2020, global emissions will remain on an unsustainable pathway that could lead to concentrations equal or above 550 parts per million, with the related temperature rise around 3C," it says.   The goal of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C, relative to pre-industrial levels, has become the figure that all rich countries have committed to trying to achieve in Copenhagen.   However, 102 of the world"s poorest countries are holding out for emission cuts that would result in a temperature increase of no more than 1.5C. Anything below that, they say, would leave billions of people in the world homeless, unable to feed their people and open to catastrophic weather-related disasters.   Further steps are possible and necessary to fill the gap. This could be done by increasing the aggregated emission reductions to at least 30% below the baseline levels, further stronger voluntary actions by developing countries to reduce their emissions by at least 20% below business as usual and; reducing further emissions from deforestation and international aviation and marine shipping," says the internal paper.   Greenpeace campaigner Joss Garman said: "This is an explosive document that shows the numbers on the table at the moment would lead to nothing less than climate breakdown and an extraordinarily dangerous situation for humanity. The UN is admitting in private that the pledges made by world leaders would lead to a 3C rise in temperatures. The science shows that could lead to the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, crippling water shortages across Africa, South America and Australia and the near-extinction of tropical coral reefs, and that"s just the start of it."   The biggest remaining obstacles that remain are who pays for the fight against climate change and how much, emissions cuts and how promises of cuts are verified.   Earlier this week, Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the UN"s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Guardian that even with 1.5C rises, many communities would suffer. "Some of the most vulnerable regions in the world will be worst affected. These will be the largest countries in the developing world. They have little infrastructure that might protect them from climate change. The tragedy of the situation is that those countries that have not at all contributed to the problem of climate change will be the ones that are most affected," he said.   "Some parts of the world, which even with a 1.5C rise, will suffer great hardship and lose their ability to lead a decent and stable form of existence. If we are going to be concerned about these communities, then maybe 1.5C is what we should be targeting. But if we can find means by which those communities can be helped to withstand the impact of climate change with substantial flow of finances, then maybe one can go to 2C."
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