Poznan
Perspective
By Dan Shepard
WEDNESday, 3 December 2008
11 a.m.--Adapting to climate change is a major issue in the climate change talks, particularly for people in the world’s poorest countries. Most of these countries account for only a miniscule contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating the rate of climate change, yet they stand to suffer the most from climate change. To get a sense of the problem, the first question in an interview with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by a Polish newspaper was why Poland, in a moderate climate zone, should be doing something about climate change.
According to Stephan Singer of the NGO WWW, 100 developing countries, with a a population of one billion people, account for only three percent of all emissions. For many participant here in Poznan, the evidence that climate change is already taking a toll on developing countries is abundantly clear--they are facing periods of longer droughts, and rainfall, when it occurs, is more intense and more damaging to crops.
According to the Global Environment Fund, which is providing financing to help the least developed countries cope with climate change, many of these countries are “pioneers”in adaptation. Bonizella Biagini, a manager for the GEF’s adaptation programme, says these 38 of these countries have put together national plans for adaptation and now projects are coming online to help meet the concerns that have been identified.
There were two specific areas that the Pacific Island country of Samoa wanted to address, particularly the health impacts of climate change and the need for an early warning system. Tuuu Ieti Tamlealo, a high ranking official in Samoa’s Ministry of Environment, says it is feared that diahorrea, dengue fever and other water borne diseases will increasingly affect Samoan. And people want better climate and weather forecasting to help agriculture and to reduce risks from damaging weather events. And in the northwest part of Eritrea, Seid Abdu Salih is working to coordinate a project that will help pastoralists adapt to greater climate variability in what he calls “the most arid part of sub-Saharan Africa.”
1 p.m.--One of the truly fascinating elements of the Poznan Climate Change Convention is the number of people here who are involved in carbon trading, in establishing carbon markets, evaluating existing mechanisms or advising businesses and governments on carbon trading.
One prominent player in the quest for a global carbon market is the International Emissions Trading Association, which is supporting the growth of carbon markets all over the world, and is forecasting that 2009 will be a big year, with developments in the Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States.
In their new report, Greenhouse Gas Market 2008, they advocate simple auctions for emission rights with a word of caution to governments to make sure that the primary purpose of these auctions is not to raise revenue--although they will, and to be sure not to use the auctions as a way to control the price of emissions.
And Robert Dornau, from an inspection and verification company SGS, said the Climate Change Convention’s Clean Development Mechanism is often unfairly criticized for either blocking projects that work or for allowing projects that often don’t add much. But he said much of the criticisn is made by critics whose experience is not made public, and that with proper training, the assessment process is basically sound.
6 p.m..--Everyday a roar goes off in the hall as the 430 member NGO coalition Climate Action Network announces it’s “Fossil of the Day” Award, given to those countries that they believe have done the most to impede progress toward a solid agreement. From Bali to Poznan, there are plenty of repeat offenders, say the NGOs, and the misdeeds can be for anything ranging from just bad climate policies to particular perceived obstructionist tactics in the negotiations.
