climate change

In Burcao, Somaliland we visited a village called Ununley. Here, in houses spread on either side of the road, live pastoralist families. When the village gathers to meet us, providing an occasion to drink tea and chew khaat, there is a distinct majority of elderly and women. Indeed, many men have gone with their sheep and goats to search for water. The latest information, a village elder tells us, is that it has rained by the Ethiopian border.

Today is December 12, 2009 and it will go down as a day, when ordinary people around the world all joined together to demand action on Climate Change.

Here in Copenhagen, an estimated 100,000 strong rally are walking towards the UN Climate Conference, from the centre of town. Photos and phone calls from the Oxfam contingent, report back with the news that while it is a peaceful march, the crowd are unswerving in their demands for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal on climate, now.

Watch Junichi and Shoya's message to Prime Minister Hatoyama, of Japan, and then send your own message to the Prime Minister, by asking him to show climate leadership at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, by sending him a message on his comment board.

Here is an example of what you may want to say to the Prime Minister.

Yes you’re right, this is the health and education for all blog but let’s think about climate change for a minute…after all the Copenhagen climate summit is happening right now…

When you ask people what happened yesterday in the negotiations at the COP , they’ll say – not much. Delegates were hunkered down in side rooms and there were no major sessions taking place. But it’s interesting how steamy a ‘not much’ day can be. And it feels like the temperature is rising quite quickly.

The queues for the Bella Centre started just after dawn. Yesterday the building was quiet and clean as a church. It’s lunchtime on the first day and already the place looks more like a students union. The Oxfam team is huddled near the entrance to the media centre –we’ve just had our first squabble over plugpoints.

The first ‘incident’ has just occurred – this time it was a group of kids doing a kooky and good tempered ‘climate dance’, but the tone of direct actions inside the Bella Centre is likely to sour pretty quickly. 

Ya estamos aquí. Las ONG, los periodistas, los negociadores de la ONU y el ejército de agentes de seguridad estamos listos para la gran cumbre de Copenhague que tiene dar a luz un contrato de los países con la lucha contra el cambio climático que dure hasta el año 2050.

A las pocas horas de que suene el silbato de salida el contrato que se espera conseguir debe finiquitar el vapuleado acuerdo de Kyoto y establecer nuevas reglas del juego. Esperamos ver llegar a los jefes de Estado y de Gobierno, queremos verlos poner su autógrafo en un texto ambicioso y vinculante. 

Canada in 2010 is a date with fate. When the G8 leaders meet in Muskoka next June they come face to face with a long list of commitments – on aid, on Africa, on health and education, water and sanitation, on women and children, on AIDS, on climate change and now, on support for small farmers.

Day Two and the focus shifts from the G8 (which in the end met as a group for only several hours) to an ever larger group of world leaders – including all the big producers of green house gases, north and south.
 
Climate change has received more attention in l'Aquila than at any previous summit. And with Obama in the White House the logjam that has blocked even the most modest progress has been broken.
 

We've now seen what they've agreed to and it isn't pretty. On aid and Africa, there's nothing new. And on the economic crisis, well, let's just say the impact on the poor in the global South wasn't top of mind for G8 leaders.

When you speak to journalists about this stark reality they ask: "But where's the news? Every year we hear the same thing."