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Archive for March 21st, 2011
Clear response to climate change needed
Posted by VietNamNet Bridge: None Given on March 21st, 2011
VietNamNet Bridge: The negative impacts of climate change on Viet Nam are obvious but the country remains confused about an effective, comprehensive response strategy, experts said at a meeting held last Friday to mark the World Meteorology Day (March 18).
Experts as well as provincial and city representatives said there were differences of opinion on a specific strategy to minimise the consequences of climate change.
They said that the actual, specific impacts experienced by regions and localities nationwide...
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Local floods raise climate fears
Posted by Virgin Media Music: None Given on March 21st, 2011
Virgin Media Music: Local floods raise climate fears
People who have experienced flooding in their local area are more concerned about climate change, researchers have said.
Members of the public who have had floods, such as those in summer 2007 which hit swathes of the UK, in their area are more likely to think they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and believe that global warming is a problem.
They are also more likely to think they can tackle climate change and are more prepared to take steps...
Poor countries pledge to help curb climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2011
Associated Press: The United Nations is compiling pledges by developing countries to fight climate change, from Mongolia's plan to set up solar power stations in the Gobi Desert to promises by the Central African Republic to cover a quarter of its territory with forests.
The pledges are voluntary, and many nations made them conditional of financial and technical help from the industrial world.
But the list _ released Monday _ helps satisfy demands by wealthy countries, which are obliged to cut carbon emissions...
India: The climate for food
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2011
Business Standard: Given the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to climate change, the countrys food security is threatened by global warming. The Union agriculture ministry is right, therefore, to warn of a possible foodgrain deficit, of as much as 20 million tonne by the end of this decade if measures are not taken to combat the impact of global warming on food production. It has also reportedly asked for an additional budgetary support of Rs 1,08,000 crore in the next five years for developing the required infrastructure,...
Climate change threatens EA’s staple food crop
Posted by East African: Cosmas Butuny on March 21st, 2011
East African: East Africans have to rethink their reliance on maize as a staple crop after a new study showed that yields of the crop are set to decline drastically as a result of climate change, hurting food security in the region.
But if the region insists on maintaining maize as their food crop, then farmers will now have to work much harder and change tack to produce enough to eat.
This follows predictions by scientists from Stanford University and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre...
Ethiopia at centre of global farmland rush
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2011
Guardian: It's the deal of the century: £150 a week to lease more than 2,500 sq km (1,000 sq miles) of virgin, fertile land – an area the size of Dorset – for 50 years. Bangalore-based food company Karuturi Global says it had not even seen the land when it was offered by the Ethiopian government with tax breaks thrown in.
Karuturi snapped it up, and next year the company, one of the world's top 25 agri-businesses, will export palm oil, sugar, rice and other foods from Gambella province – a remote region...
Local people have their voice in project implementation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2011
Jakarta Post: There will be no permits available for any organization initiating Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus (REDD-plus) projects without first implementing the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) process involving local communities and indigenous people living in forest areas, a senior official says.
National Forestry Board (DKN) presidium head Made Subadya Gel Gel said Thursday that REDD-plus project initiators had to carry out the FPIC process in planned project areas...
Want water? save forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2011
Mongabay: The UN-backed Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) is urging nations to conserve their forests in a bid to mitigate rising water scarcity problems. "[Forests] reduce the effects of floods, prevent soil erosion, regulate the water table and assure a high-quality water supply for people, industry and agriculture," said the Forestry Department Assistant Director General, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Forests are part of the natural infrastructure...
Samoa Represents Small Islands Development States on Climate Fund Committee
Posted by Solomon Times: None Given on March 21st, 2011
Solomon Times: The Green Climate Fund of 30 billion dollars to address climate change in developing countries was a topic for discussion at the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable in Alofi, Niue this week.
In terms of capitalization of the new Fund, Parties agreed that developed counties will "commit, to a goal of mobilizing jointly USD100 billion per year by 2010 to address the needs of developing countries."
In order for these funds to be spent and dispersed the Green Climate Fund must be designed by a Transitional...