UPDATE #1 - MONDAY DECEMBER 14

The first week of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 was unpredictable with stalemates on and recommitments to various positions and issues. Week two, starting today, has so far proven to be the same, and promises to worse if some of the events witnessed today are things to go by.


CARE GHANA DELEGATION MEMBER MAKES PRESENTATION

David Sumbo, CARE Ghana Program Coordinator, Agric and Food Security, this morning presented a paper on Integrating Adaptation into Local Planning in Ghana at a side event jointly organised by the Development Fund Norway, Practical Action and CARE International.

The forum was organised to share experiences on how to identify and target communities most vulnerable to climate change and identify how experiences from community-based adaptation could be scaled to national programmes.

Mr Sumbo's presentation focused on the project "Experiences from Community Land Use Responses to Climate Change project" coordinated by him and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and CARE CANADA. The project is being implemented in two districts: East Mamprusi in the Northern Region and Bawku in the Upper East Region.

According to Sumbo, capacity of people at the local level to be able to do planning is limited. Therefore the project sought to: Identify the most vulnerable groups within communities; Empower them to engage in local planning processes; and Build capacity of local stakeholders to integrate climate change adaptation into planning.

He said one of the examples of the support of the integration of plans of the vulnerable group into the district plan was the construction of walls of a well which collapsed during the 2007 flooding in the north. This has in turn led to improvement in crop production and yield and all year round production for the women group.

At the same forum, Christina Chan, Senior Policy Analyst of CARE USA who is leading the advocacy work on adaption to climate change at COP15, gave indications of mixed outcomes for adaptation issues. She said the adopted text being considered today had some language that addressed some concerns on vulnerable groups. However, the participation of vulnerable groups in monitoring the utilization of adaptation funds was bracketed and risked being deleted. 

KYOTO PROTOCOL AT RISK

Civil society and NGOs, particularly from Africa staged a brief demonstration shortly before 13 hours local time inside the Bella Center declaring, "We Stand With Africa."

Africa and developing countries want a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol. However, there are indications that developed countries want the protocol collapsed, in order to get a firmer grip on their demands for a politically binding agreement.

Nnimmo Bassey, Chair, Friends of the Earth International, said after the demonstration: "The Kyoto Protocol is the only document we have now and we want it to stay" even though the protocol is an imperfect document.

Global Youth also demonstrated in solidarity with Africa for the survival of Kyoto. They raised various African country flags in their action.

Also, at an informal meeting earlier, African ministers indicated that they will not tolerate any attempt to kill the Kyoto Protocol.

COMING SOON:

A COMPREHENSIVE UPDATE ON LAST WEEK PLUS SPECIFIC UNDATES ON REDD and ADAPTATION.

Photo coutesy: www.athenadr.wordpress.com

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