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	Concerns over Role of Corporates at Climate Talks by Mantoe Phakathi Inter Press Service Nov 2013 As deliberations continue in earnest at the 19th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Warsaw, negotiators from the Global South welcome a focus on financing adaptation – but reject a new emphasis on a role for the private sector. Climate negotiations have now dragged on for almost 20 years. Talk of "fair, ambitious and binding" agreements to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming appears to be fading, to be replaced by proposals to turn to the private sector for loans and investment to support adaptation to climate change at what has been dubbed the "Corporate COP (Conference of Parties)". Tosi Mpamu-Mpamu, a negotiator for the Democratic Republic of Congo and a former chair of the African Group of negotiators, sees an alarming change emerging in the approach to funding the response to climate change. At the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009, developed states pledged 30 billion dollars of new aid for climate finance for the developing world between 2010 and 2012, and a further 100 billion by 2020. "Developed countries are now shifting the responsibility to provide funding to the private sector, a dangerous trend to these negotiations," said Mpamu-Mpamu. Other negotiators share Mpamu-Mpamu"s concerns over the role transnational corporations are assuming at the conference. "At a three-day conference prior to this COP, businesses spent two days explaining how they could make money out of climate change," said Rene Orellana, head of Bolivia"s delegation. And, said Pascone Sabido from the Corporate Europe Observatory, the corporations assuming prominence at the COP are also the biggest emitters of carbon. He criticised the U.N. for accepting sponsorship for COP19 from major polluters like steel giant ArcelorMittal and the Polish Energy Group (PGE), saying these companies were influencing the negotiations. "You wouldn"t ask Marlboro to sponsor a summit on lung cancer, so why is it acceptable for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change?" he said. Rachel Tansey, researcher at the Malaysia-based NGO Environment and Economic Justice, says big business wants to see climate finance – public funding – directed towards projects that corporations can profit from. And the governments of the developed countries are listening. "Alstom is lobbying for so-called "clean" coal, controversial technologies that allow them to continue profiting from burning fossil fuels, like carbon capture and storage, and for more nuclear power," said Tansey. Swaziland"s Emmanuel Dlamini, the chair of the Africa Group of negotiators, said that despite some risks, bringing business on board is not such a bad idea. "For developed states to come up with the finance, they need to mobilise the business sector," Dlamini told IPS. He said that business is not taking part in the actual negotiations. "But," he said, "there is the danger of the private sector influencing decisions through proposals they sell to their governments which could be brought into the COP negotiations." For Dlamini, the main challenge is to clearly define climate finance. Since the Copenhagen conference, he said, a lot of aid to developing countries has been classified as climate assistance. "Yes, there has been money flowing, but to what extent is it climate finance?" wondered Dlamini. In Swaziland, for instance, he said, money coming from the European Union"s Official Development Assistance for poverty alleviation is now considered climate finance. "We need a reliable fund for climate change like the GCF," said Dlamini. Meena Raman, from the observer group Third World Network, says completing the setting up of the Green Climate Fund would be helpful because it is a grant fund that will directly benefit poor countries. Presently headquartered in South Korea, with operational funding of just seven million dollars, the Green Climate Fund does not as yet have a cent for projects. "That"s where developing countries are saying the 100 billion dollars should go to, a matter still under discussion," said Raman. Visit the related web page

	The Human Story by UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency Behind all the statements and statistics about refugees, asylum seekers, the internally displaced and the stateless are real people with harrowing tales of suffering and loss, as well as hope and ambition. UNHCR believes we must provide a platform for their voices and - when it does not risk their safety - to give a face to the millions of people of concern. Our staff around the world gather these human stories every day so that people living in peace and comfort can understand why the forcibly displaced and stateless need compassion and care. The best way to understand the suffering of others is to hear their stories of hardship, courage, struggle and perseverance. * Read their stories via the link below. December 2013 UNHCR report warns of unusually large numbers of forcibly displaced this year. The UN refugee agency warned in a report released this week that 2013 was on track for some of the highest levels of forced displacement ever seen by the agency, due to unusually large numbers of new refugees and internally displaced people. The report said 5.9 million people were forced to flee their homes in the first six months of the year, compared with 7.6 million for all of 2012. The biggest producer of new displacement was Syria. UNHCR''s "Mid-Year Trends 2013" report is mainly based on data provided by the organization''s more than 120 country offices, and shows sharp rises in several important indicators. Among these is the number of new refugees: 1.5 million during the first six months of 2013 compared to 1.1 million for all of 2012. Another is people newly displaced within their own countries – 4 million people compared with 6.5 million for all of 2012. There were also more than 450,000 asylum applications, although this was approximately on par with levels from the same period a year earlier. The report describes the first half of 2013 as "one of the worst periods for forced displacement in decades". "It is hard to see such numbers and not ask why so many people are today becoming refugees or internally displaced," said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "Humanitarian organizations deliver life-saving assistance, but we can''t prevent or stop wars – that requires political effort and political will and this is where much more concerted international focus needs to be placed." Globally, forced displacement – at 45.2 million as of end 2012 – is already at its highest level since the early 1990s due overwhelmingly to an escalation of new conflicts. Mid-Year Trends 2013 does not update this figure (as complete data for doing so only becomes available in mid-2014) but it warns that the eventual tally for 2013 as a whole is likely to see the global forced displacement total go even higher than in 2012, mainly because of continuing large outflows from, and displacement within, Syria. UNHCR works in all the world''s major refugee situations, with the exception of Palestinian refugees under the care of sister agency UNRWA, and situations of internal displacement where people are looked after directly by their own national governments. Mid-Year Trends 2013 notes increases in several areas involving these so-called "populations of concern" to UNHCR. This includes a 600,000-person increase in the number of refugees from end 2012 to 11.1 million, and a sharp rise in numbers of internally displaced under UNHCR''s care to 20.8 million from 17.7 million at end 2012. Elsewhere, 189,300 refugees returned to their countries of origin during the first six months of 2013, while 33,700 were resettled in third countries. Some 688,000 internally displaced people (IDP) returned home in countries where UNHCR works in IDP situations. Afghanistan remained the world''s leading source country of refugees overall (2.6 million), and Pakistan the largest refugee-hosting country (1.6 million). Visit the related web page

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