With 18 days remaining until the November 27th opening of the UNFCCC COP17 in Durban, SA, The Climate Train later today hosts a gender and climate change roundtable in Johannesburg.
The train, recognized as one of the most ambitious COP campaigns to date, departed Cape Town October 28 to criss-cross South Africa, stopping in 17 small town, rural, village, and township communities to educate some of the most vulnerable people in the world on the impacts of a changing climate on their lives. Climate Train Leads Way to Conference of the Parties 17
According to a GCCA release earlier today, the Climate Train is a joint project which was organized by Indalo Yethu, the South African Environmental Agency in collaboration with the British Council and with the support of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and the Embassy of the Republic of Germany. The train will return along the same route after the conference to present information on outcomes of COP17.
The damaged was caused by the March 2007 storms which had winds of 450 kilometres per hour and 13 metre high waves, total damage to the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast was estimated at one billion Rand. The storm was a result of global climate changes and that global warming conditions have led to a two to three-millimetre rise in tides over the last forty years.
(This photo was taken in Ballito, South Africa by Michael J. Robinson for the category Water)
The Train is a climate journey that seeks to highlight the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities, and document their responses, expectations and aspirations. The train activities include on-board exhibitions and educational content including roundtable dialogues, seminars, creative and performing arts. Off-board related activities include creative arts, town hall dialogues, roundtable meetings and tree planting. There are also plans for performing and creative artists, learning visits and sessions for school children, painting of Mother Earth competition, poetry readings, climate change lessons, creative artists and an Exhibition Carriage including information about solar technology and Africa’s biodiversity.
Entering the Talks: Key Issues
•Kyoto 2nd Commitment Period
• Green Climate Fund
• Adaptation v. mitigation: major issue for LDCs and SMDSs and Africa.
• Bali Roadmap: dealing with outstanding political issues
Focus on Environment: Women and Climate Change
Incoming president for COP17, Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane recently spoke on the issue of ‘women and climate change’. In her speech, Minister Mashabane reiterated that global warming will have devastating consequences for millions of people around the world. As climate change will inevitably continue to affect humanity, a key priority is safeguarding the human rights of people whose lives are most adversely affected, particularly women in developing countries.
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Women, as caretakers, are at greater risk in times of extreme weather. In Africa, women do 90% of the work of gathering water and food, and children, in particular girls, often share these responsibilities. Women in rural areas are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihoods and with seasons becoming hotter and drier each year they are having to walk further each year to find safe water for drinking and cooking, spending up to eight hours a day on the road.
WWF sees COP 17 as laying foundation for future deal
There would be no legally binding agreement from the seventeenth Conference of the Parties, or COP 17, which kicks off in Durban later this month, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) South Africa climate change team leader Tasneem Essop said on Tuesday.
The WWF said the current global economic realities, as well as the international political landscape were not aligned with the science of climate change, which indicated that urgent action was required. That said, Essop argued that the economic crisis should not be used as an “excuse”, as the very transition to a low-carbon economy offered part of the solution to the crisis.
It was “disappointing” that countries such as Russia, Japan and Canada had already indicated their intention not to align themselves with a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. While the US, she said, was coming to South Africa “empty-handed”.
“The US has received sympathy for the domestic challenges in the country, but has squandered that sympathy and is not willing to discuss the Green Climate Fund (GCF).”
Highlights of COP17
UKZN to accommodate alternative COP17 civil society events
The establishment of a parallel space at COP negotiations each year responds to the marginalisation civil society frequently experiences at these events and the lack of progress that has been made by international governments in addressing climate change.‘The People’s Space’ will thus serve as the space in which the people of the world can make their voices heard and where civil society can work towards creating another vision for addressing climate change by building a strong movement of like-minded activists and ordinary people from around the world.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has been identified as the site of this year’s COP17 alternative space, known as the ‘People’s Space’, where national and international civil society will come together around the global issue of climate change.
Cliimate and Agriculture Day December 3rd
Agriculture possesses huge untapped potential to reduce poverty, bolster food security, adapt to climate change, reduce pressure on natural resources, and in many places lower greenhouse gas emissions. To realise this potential, farmers, fishers, and pastoralists must urgently become ‘climate-smart’, especially in the developing world, which will be hit hardest by climate change impacts.
Through an exciting programme, which will include learning events and exhibits, the third annual Agriculture and Rural Development Day will highlight options by which rural people can achieve that end
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Today's Study Points
Kyoto Protocol
Bali Roadmap
Green Climate Fund
Issue 2: In depth analysis of major issues @ COP17
11:01 AM PT: Trans African Caravan of Hope, which kicked off today in Burundi. http://transafricancaravanofhope.blogspot.com
This is an initiative by the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance PACJA, with various GCCA partners like Oxfam, ActionAid and ChristianAid heavily involved. Attached is a media advisory for today’s launch with more information, and here is how you can follow the caravan online:
11:02 AM PT: Oxfam and Action Aid have their first blogs up about today’s kick off event, and groups involved have set up a dropbox where they plan to share materials over the coming weeks, like blogs, photos and video. Groups around the world are asked to use these materials to amplify the voices of our African colleagues and help them tell the stories of problems and solutions related to climate impacts hitting this vulnerable continent. We’ll keep you updates about content coming in, but for now you could consider cross-posting or tweeting/facebooking these:
Oxfam: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/...
Action Aid: http://www.actionaid.org/...