climate change

Another round of climate talks are approaching an end in Cancun, Mexico and the odds for achieving a fair, binding and ambitious climate deal seem highly improbable. But while negotiations are slow, a race has just ended between the youth from India, China and the United States. The Great Power Race was a clean energy competition between campuses in these three countries and the competition culminated in the announcement of the final winners and an awards ceremony at the COP16 negotiations.

Organized by 350.org and implemented by Energy Action coalition, Chinese youth climate action network and the Indian youth climate network, the race provided a platform for student teams to build climate solutions on campuses and prove to the leaders that the youth have gotten to work and they expect the same from their leaders. [img_assist|nid=1295|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=445]

IYCN has had the pleasure of organizing this competition in India and we hope this will lead to more similar projects next year and the years to come. We thank all our supporters, friends from China and the United States and every one of those hundreds of campuses and teams that have registered and executed some amazing projects. We hope to continue this collaboration in the future with more exciting programs.

The following is a statement from Mr Mohamed Aslam, the Minister of Environment and housing to the High level segment at the ongoing COP16 negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.

The statement reiterates the need for more political will and leadership from all nations of the world to safeguard the very survival of small island nations. A call for more ambitious targets like 1.5 degrees C and 350 PPM was made and nations urged to anchor the pledges from the Copenhagen accord in a balanced, legally binding framework.

8 December 2010

Your Excellencies, distinguished representatives, ladies
and gentlemen,

Allow me to express my thanks and full support to the Mexican presidency, for overseeing such a well run, open and transparent Conference of the Parties here in Cancun.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

Given the short time slot we all have to make our statements here, let me get straight down to business.

There is much talk about numbers here in Cancun. We already know which numbers are necessary to ensure our survival. And we know the numbers necessary for the survival of other small island states, which are threatened by coral bleaching, ocean acidification, saltwater intrusion,coastal erosion and sea level rise. Those numbers are CO2
concentration of 350 ppm and temperature rise well below 1.5C. These numbers are strongly backed by science.

The Kyoto protocol might breathe its last at the Cancun negotiations or could well be deemed worthless at the end of this annual climate talks. Japan, the very shrine of the birth of Kyoto made its statement loud and clear on the floor on the first day of the negotiations that Japan will not be willing to accept and second term commitment under the Kyoto protocol i.e it is unwilling to build on the principles of Kyoto (read CBDR). Japan is instead asking to enhance the Copenhagen accord and include all major emitting nations in a legally binding framework. Japan remains a part of the protocol and will continue to be minus its acceptance of these commitments post 2012.

The Japanese ambassador, Mitsuo Sakaba held the view that it would be unfair to claim that without the second term commitments on Kyoto from Japan, the world will not be able to make any progress on addressing climate change. The absolute necessity on having the second commitment period under the protocol was strongly stated as a non negotiable by the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, China and India) at a recent conference in Cancun. Given this clear impasse and deadlock, finding the middle ground is quite crucial for getting all parties on board. Taking a look at the pros and cons of the Kyoto will put things into perspective.

Pro kyoto