The UNFCCC Secretariat has announced that the negotiating text for the anticipated 2015 climate change agreement has been translated into the six official UN languages and formally communicated to governments. The text was agreed as the basis for negotiations by the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) at the eighth part of its second session in February 2015.
The global climate change agreement is expected to be adopted at the Paris Climate Change Conference in December 2015. According to the Secretariat, all the legal procedures required for countries to adopt a legal instrument under the UNFCCC have now been completed.
Communicating the text well in advance of the May 2015 deadline will allow early consideration of areas of emerging consensus and the range of options available to governments, according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. The text contains various country proposals on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity building, and transparency of action and support.
For the complete article, please see IISD.
In this interview, EcoPeace Directors Nada Majdalani (Palestine), Yana Abu-Taleb (Jordan) and Gidon Bromberg (Israel) explain why disengaging from a shared environment can aggravate the region’s security challenges.
At the conclusion of the 50th Pacific Islands Forum, Pacific leaders issued a Forum Communiqué and the ‘Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Change Action Now’ – the strongest collective statement the Forum has issued on climate change. Pacific leaders highlight the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, the SAMOA Pathway Review, and 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the UNFCCC as “global turning points to ensure meaningful, measurable and effective climate change action”.
If ratified, the Mercosur-EU trade deal may reinforce the parties’ commitment to climate action. Yet, its potential relevance is weakened by a language that often stops short of concrete commitments, as well as political resistance.
Iraq is on the verge of an environmental breakdown, and climate change is not helping. The country's fragile environment and the increasing scarcity of natural resources — particularly water — are a result of poor environmental management, as well as several political and historical factors. However, as climate change impacts add to the existing pressures, the environmental collapse turns into a security issue.