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	Our goal must be to pass on a safe planet to our children by Oxfam / Caritas & agencies   Australia needs to weigh up the cost of stronger targets against the huge cost of a future torrent of humanitarian crises, write World Vision"s Tim Costello, James Ensor from Oxfam and Jack de Groot from Caritas.   For Australia the debate about climate change has been about economics and politics - but for the world"s developing countries, it"s literally a matter of life and death.   In Cairns the leaders of Small Island States reiterated their call for developed country emissions to average reductions of 45 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.   Australia must take a stronger leadership role into the global talks, offering practical solutions for developing nations including financial support for emissions reductions in developing countries and adaptation financing. Most importantly, we must upgrade Australia"s climate change policy, and take an emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 to the international negotiations.   If the rest of the world set their ambitions at a similar level to Australia"s current range of targets, severe climate change impacts would be unavoidable.   A one-metre sea level rise would displace up to 150 million people, which is entirely possible this century. We could see up to 600 million people in Africa and more than a billion in Asia short of water by the 2050s. There will be serious impacts on the Australian and global economies as food and water shortages, heatwaves and losses of coastal land lead to mass migrations, social dislocation and conflict.   The science points to catastrophic changes in the climate. Our daily experiences on the ground, in the least developed countries, are confirming this.   As a nation, Australia needs to weigh up the cost of stronger targets against the huge financial costs of assisting in a future torrent of humanitarian crises. Recent research by Oxfam has predicted the number of people affected by climatic crises will increase by 54 per cent over the next six years, costing the world US$42 billion in humanitarian aid a year. These costs will cover only the worst cases of human tragedy that stronger targets can help to avoid.   An agreement at Copenhagen that protects the world"s poor is also in Australia"s national interest, and could be achieved without sacrificing Australia"s economic security. The Australian Government"s own modelling has shown that a 24 per cent target would shave only around 0.1 percentage points off Australia"s annual real per capita Gross National Product growth. This doesn"t even take into account the benefits of avoiding the severe economic impacts of dangerous climate change. We can afford a more ambitious target - it"s an investment in our future.   The government also needs to get serious about providing funding to help developing countries to both adapt to the effects of climate change and adopt low carbon pathways to future economic development to help people out of poverty.   In June, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined a plan for a $120 billion adaptation fund by 2020. The proposal is a step in the right direction, and correctly recognises the need for adaptation funding to be accessible and separate from overseas development assistance.   Adequate financing of adaptation measures for poor countries will be a key component to negotiating a successful agreement in Copenhagen. The only people who know what adaptation funding they will receive are Australia"s biggest polluters.   Legislating on climate change is protracted and complex, but it must not be viewed solely as a domestic matter. The rights and interests of the world"s poor are not in opposition to our own - acting boldly on climate change is in everyone"s interest.   Oct 2009   Our goal must be to pass on a safe planet to our children says Christine Milne.   The Australian Greens Safe Climate Bill is the first legislative attempt to transform Australia as swiftly as possible into a flourishing carbon neutral powerhouse.   Where the Australian Government"s current Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme seems to lock in failure on the climate crisis by sidelining the science and sandbagging old polluters at the expense of the sunrise industries, the Greens Safe Climate Bill gives us a real chance of success by aiming for the goal we know we need to achieve and then setting out how to get there.   Our goal is not simply to reduce carbon emissions. The true goal we must aim for is to pass on to our children, and our children"s children, the safe climate that has nurtured us and made human civilisation possible.   For many, this might seem out of reach, but we humans are capable of amazing things when we set our minds to it. Setting a safe climate target would inspire the community and unleash a wave of creativity, of innovative job creation that is right now champing at the bit, as well as improving our quality of life and reconnecting our communities.   The Safe Climate Bill, unlike the CPRS, will deliver a massive transformation in the Australian economy, a transformation that will require the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs.   Some industries will inevitably be replaced, as thousands of industries such as photo film and horse power have throughout history. Part of the job of government is to make that transition as painless as possible, not pretend that it will not have to happen and work to delay the inevitable - in fact smart Governments position their nations ahead of the curve.   The Safe Climate Bill puts equity at the heart of climate action, investing in upgrading homes of low income Australians for energy efficiency, rolling out transport alternatives in disadvantaged areas, retraining workers in polluting industries for the clean jobs of the future, and funding climate adaptation and emissions cuts in developing countries.   * Visit the link below for more details. Visit the related web page
	Save the forests, help save the planet by UN News & agencies   October 2009   Save the forests, help save the planet. (UN News)   With deforestation accounting for over 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, a senior United Nations agricultural official today called for preservation of an ecosystem that can play a major role in fighting global warming.   “Damage to forest ecosystems is affecting everyone in the world through climate change, water scarcity and the loss of biological diversity,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Assistant Director General of Forestry Jan Heino said ahead of a meeting later this month of World Forestry Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   He called on the 4,500 participants, including delegates of governments, the private sector and environmental organizations from more than 120 countries, expected to attend the 18-23 October meeting to adopt more effective land, crop and livestock management practices.   “Given that agriculture and land use changes such as deforestation contribute about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, the potential role of these sectors in meeting the climate change challenge is great,” he said in a news release.   The World Forestry Congress, held every six years since 1926 and organized by the government of the host country under FAO auspices, is the most important meeting on the global calendar with regard to the forestry sector. It comes less than two months before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where it is hoped to forge a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol with even steeper reductions of greenhouse gases.   UN agencies have repeatedly pointed to the vital role that forests play in the health of Planet earth. Last month, a campaign backed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant 7 billion new trees in a bid to push governments into reaching agreement in Copenhagen achieved its goal.   The milestone was reached on 22 September with the news that China had planted 2.6 billion trees as part of the campaign, bringing the total to 7.3 billion trees planted in 167 countries.   Tree planting remains one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change, according to UNEP. Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20 per cent of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivalling the emissions from other sources.   In a related development, efforts to set up a global body to address the loss and degradation of nature-based assets have gathered pace at a UNEP-backed gathering of representatives of nearly 100 governments.   At the Nairobi meeting, there was strong support to establish the Intergovernmental Panel or Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which would catalyze political action as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has.   “This is the year the world had hoped to have turned the tide on the loss of biodiversity,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “This, however, is unlikely to be achieved which does not undermine the goal but speaks volumes of the need for an effective mechanism which IPBES could represent.” The gathering revealed that “there is a clear recognition that the status quo is not an option,” he added.   11 October 2009   New fears for species extinctions, by Emilio San Pedro. (BBC News)   Scientists have warned of an alarming increase in the extinction of animal species, because of threats to biodiversity and ecosystems.   The threats are posed by pollution, climate change and urban spread. The comments come two days ahead of a meeting of the Diversitas group of global experts on biodiversity in the South African city of Cape Town.   Group members say world leaders have failed to honour commitments on reducing the loss of biodiversity.   These latest warnings are stark. They point to statistics that demonstrate that the extinction rates of animal species are much higher than had been predicted only a few years ago.   For example some of the worst affected - according to the scientists from the Diversitas group of biodiversity experts - are freshwater species like fish, frogs, turtles and crocodiles.   The scientists warn that these freshwater species are becoming extinct six times faster than their terrestrial and marine cousins. Some of the group"s experts predict that by 2025 not a single river in China will reach the sea - except during floods.   The members of Diversitas are meeting in Cape Town to come up with new goals to slow down the extinction rates. They lay the blame on these increased threats to animal species on world leaders.   The leaders, they say, have failed to implement the policies needed to make good on their commitments - drafted at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg seven years ago - to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010.   * Visit the Diversitas site below for more details. Visit the related web page
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