May 17, 2012
- The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the submissions from Australia, Gambia on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs), Nauru on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), New Zealand, Norway and a joint submission from Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Peru, containing their views on a workplan for the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
May 16, 2012
- The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the submissions from Australia and Lebanon containing their views on options and ways for further increasing the level of ambition, which will be reviewed by the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) at its first session.
- The submissions from Belarus, Iceland and AOSIS were made in response to a request in Decision 1/CMP.7 by the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 7) for Annex I Parties listed in annex 1 to the decision, to submit information on their QELROs for the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period.
May 14, 2012
- UNDP has released its regional human development report for the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on LDCs, including several SIDS, and their climate change-related challenges. The environmental vulnerability index, developed by the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and their partners, describes Kiribati, Maldives and Tuvalu as among the most vulnerable countries to extreme environmental shocks.
- The UNFCCC Secretariat has released Australia’s submission containing its views on: the eligibility of CCS project activities involving transport of carbon dioxide from one country to another or involving geological storage sites that are located in more than one country; and the establishment of a global reserve of CERs for CCS project activities.
May 11, 2012
- UNDP has released its regional human development report for Asia Pacific, titled "One Planet to Share – Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate." The report emphasizes that, to achieve a shift to a greener economy, countries in the region will need to change their production patterns, including in the energy, industrial and agricultural sectors.
- The 45th meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) took place in the context of growing inflation, spikes in fuel prices and worsening impacts of climate change in the Asia Pacific region. Participants discussed the need to promote green growth and food security, build resilience in urban centers, and promote trade between Asia and Latin America.
May 10, 2012
- Ahead of the May 2012 Bonn climate change negotiations, the FAO has released a note titled "Roadmap to Agriculture at the UNFCCC Climate Talks," which provides an overview of the current state of negotiations relevant to agriculture. It underlines that agriculture will be most directly discussed under the SBSTA’s issues relating to agriculture with the aim of recommending a decision for the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 18).
- An Informal Ministerial Roundtable on Climate Change brought together representatives from 30 countries, including from LDCs and AOSIS. The Roundtable was convened by Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, who called on countries to keep up the momentum created in Durban on climate change and to make progress at Rio+20.
- The UNFCCC Secretariat has released two joint submissions from Parties contain their views on: robust and transparent national forest monitoring systems as referred to in paragraph 71c of decision 1/CP.16 as requested by the SBSTA at its 35th session; and on how to address drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as referred to in paragraph 71c of decision 1/CP.16 as requested by the SBSTA at its 35th session.