clima

Climate change is making extreme weather much more likely. As the 2012 drought in the USA shows, extreme weather means extreme food prices.

Climate change will cripple the ASEAN goal of economic integration by 2015. The warning was issued today by ASEAN for a Fair, Ambitious and Binding Climate Deal (A-FAB), a regional coalition led by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and Oxfam, during a press conference at the UN climate change talks in Bangkok

International aid agency Oxfam today releases a digital edition of its report Growing a Better Future: Food justice in a resource constrained world, to coincide with the beginning of ‘GROW Week’ – a week of activism highlighting the world’s broken food system.

“Food, funds, inequality” issues will test G20 leaders’ ability to transform the global economy. The 2011 G20 Summit could be a watershed for global stability and prosperity if leaders rise above a narrow vision of self-interest and act decisively for the world’s poorest citizens.

For the past year we have all operated under the hangover of Copenhagen: the disappointment, suspicion, scepticism and disorientation. And while there was so much more that could have been accomplished at Cancun, the other side of these talks is a better place to be.

UN climate talks are off the life-support machine, following a last-minute agreement that gives the Kyoto Protocol a lifeline. It establishes a global Climate Fund and, while falling short of the emissions cuts needed, lays out a path to move towards them.

National self-interest and brinkmanship must not be allowed to sabotage the Cancun climate talks and risk reversing the progress made over the past two weeks, warned Oxfam on the penultimate day of the increasingly volatile Summit.

Halfway through the Cancun climate talks, negotiators have an opportunity to make real progress on a fair global climate fund and climate finance, said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Honorary President of Oxfam.

Ministers speaking for the first time this afternoon at the High Level segment at the UN climate talks in Cancun must show political leadership to ensure key agreements are made by the end of the week.

Oxfam and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced they are seeking $28 million from public and private investors for their ground-breaking five-year partnership to help poor rural people protect their crops and livelihoods from the impact of climate change.