EU creates alliance on climate change

The European Commission is proposing to build a new alliance on climate change between the European Union and the poor developing countries that are most affected and that have the least capacity to deal with climate change. Through this Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA), the EU and these countries will work jointly to integrate climate change into poverty reduction strategies.

The EU will provide substantial resources to address climate change in these countries. Measures will include better preparedness for natural disasters which are expected to become more frequent and intense through global warming. The GCCA renews the commitment of the EU Action Plan on Climate Change and Development to systematically integrate climate change into development cooperation.

Developing countries will be the hardest hit by the effects of climate change and therefore need our help to mitigate climate change and to adapt to the changes already occuring. New technology is only one way of developing towards a sustainable society without hampering development and quality of life. This communication, presented by Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel in association with Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, aims to provide for a broader range of actions through dialogue and exchange as well as practical cooperation between EU and the developing countries.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that most regions in the world, and especially those in the developing world, will be increasingly affected by climate change. Poor developing countries, and in particular the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will be among the countries hit earliest and hardest.

The EU has a leadership role in promoting international action to tackle climate change. The Spring Council 2007 put forward concrete proposals for a post-2012 international climate change agreement, and committed to significant cuts in the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Global Climate Change Alliance will be an important pillar of the EU’s external action on climate change, reaching out to the countries least responsible for, but most affected by global warming.

Assistance provided under the Global Climate Change Alliance is proposed to focus on five areas: implementing concrete adaptation measures; reducing emissions from deforestation; helping poor countries take advantage from the global carbon market; helping poor countries to be better prepared for natural disasters, and integrating climate change into development cooperation and poverty reduction strategies. As Climate change affects many sectors, it needs to be integrated into poverty reduction efforts in order to ensure sustainability. Systematic climate risk assessment and mainstreaming of climate change into development strategies and programmes (“climate proofing”) are imperative in this regard.

The Commission already earmarked €50 million to the GCCA over the period 2008-10. But substantially more resources are needed to provide a response that adequately responds to the needs. Therefore an appeal is made to the EU Member States to dedicate part of their agreed commitments to increase Official Development Assistance over the coming years to the cause of coping with climate change in the most vulnerable countries.

The first occasion to discuss the Alliance with developing country partners will be the European Development Days held in Lisbon from 7th to 9th November and focusing on climate change and development.

Over the past years the link between climate change and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events became amply clear. Seven of the ten deadliest disasters of the last 20 years have occurred between 2000 and 2006. Only since July 2007, the European Commission has provided €24.5 million to the victims of natural disasters in Colombia, Caribbean, Peru, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, North Korea and the Sudan. The Global Climate Change Alliance aims to assist the most vulnerable countries in the prevention of and their preparedness for natural disasters.

Stand Up and Speak out

On October 16th and 17th , millions all over the world will once again Stand Up and Speak Out against poverty and inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals. The Stand Up Speak Out initiative is planned to coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. On this day last year, 23.5 million people stood up against poverty in a 24 hour period setting a new Guinness World Record.

This year the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and the United Nations Millennium Campaign plan to mobilize people all over the world to break this record, urging millions more to join this growing global movement. They will demand that their governments keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Goals to end extreme poverty by 2015. From workers to students, women’s groups to community groups, people will call on political leaders to deliver more and better aid to the poorest nations, implement fairer trade conditions, cancel debt, ensure gender equality as well as greater transparency and accountability from their governments.

They will stand up and challenge the world record
Events are being planned in over 100 countries. These will range from major rallies and concerts to gatherings in school assemblies, town halls and refugee camps. Participants will be asked to register for the Guinness challenge in the 24-hour period from 9pm GMT on October 16th to 9pm GMT on October 17th.
For more information on Stand Up and Speak Out events and a video reel from last year visit www.standagainstpoverty.org

They will speak through music, political meetings and using banners
A new piece of choral music, The Poverty Requiem, will be performed in a global chain of performances in over 25 countries. Delegations will meet politicians to present their demands to end poverty and on four continents International Women’s Tribunals on Poverty will be held to raise awareness of gender issues. Elsewhere, groups are making giant Banners Against Poverty with messages for leaders and later linking these on key global mobilization dates.

Journalists for training on Millennium Development Goals

Twenty junior radio and print journalists from twelve Caribbean Commonwealth countries and two non-Commonwealth countries will be in Jamaica from September 12-16 for a training workshop on Reporting the Millennium Development Goals”.

The workshop which will be held in Mandeville, Manchester is being organized by Panos Caribbean and is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.

During the workshop, local and rural issues in addition to national and regional issues will be highlighted.

A press release from Panos Caribbean quoted Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Dr. Mark Collins as saying that “at this half-way stage towards the MDG target date of 2015 it is vital that Caribbean governments keep up the momentum. Journalists play a key role as opinion-formers who can ensure that citizens and politicians alike recognize that there is no room for complacency in tackling these goals. They must be achieved and this workshop will help to ensure that the issues are kept alive and kicking.”

Jan Voordouw, Executive Director of Panos Caribbean stressed that MDGs are of prime importance to Caribbean societies, especially the vulnerable ones.

“However, often people do not easily see how to translate such global goals to local realities. During the workshop we will explore how media can assist in evaluating progress on the goals in our specific islands, to see how far we have come whether it is nationally or in marginal areas,” Voordouw said.

The release said also that the training during the workshop will focus particularly on HIV/AIDS, climate change, education, and debt relief.

“We expect that after the workshop, more radio and print stories will come out on the MDGs in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The workshop will also provide an opportunity for networking and joint investigation among journalists across the region,” Voordouw said.

The participants are drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Haiti and Suriname.

Presenters will include Dr. Maureen Samms-Vaugh from the Early Childhood Commission, Canute James, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communications, Dale Rankine from the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme in Jamaica, and Peter Espeut from the Caribbean Costal Area Management Foundat-ion, the release added.

In 2007 a large UN Conference agreed on eight MDGs, setting targets for the substantial reduction of poverty by 2015. Nearly all the countries of the world have signed up to them.

The eight MDGs are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.

NGOs Unite on Earth’s Greatest Crisis

A three-day meeting of over 2,500 delegates from more than 500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and representing 80 countries affirmed that climate change “is potentially the most serious threat humanity and our environment have ever faced.”

A declaration adopted Friday warns that global warming can possibly have a devastating impact on virtually all aspects of life in the planet, including “catastrophic effects on our earth’s ecosystem, biodiversity and infrastructure.”

Among other potential threats singled out were: the significant reduction of available food, water, energy and transport; massive migration of populations and the possible destruction of entire cultures and small island nations; significant damage to economic, political, cultural and social bases; and irreversible harm to the lifestyles of indigenous peoples.

The meeting, described as one of the largest single gathering of NGOs, was organised by the U.N.’s Department of Public Information, which has been hosting similar conferences over the last 59 years. This year’s theme was: “Climate Change: How it Impacts Us All.”

Stressing the role of NGOs in raising global awareness of climate change, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told delegates the United Nations today relies on its partnership with the NGO community “in virtually everything the world body does”.

“Whether it is peace-building in sub-Saharan Africa or human rights in Latin America, disaster assistance in the Caribbean or de-mining efforts in the Middle East, the United Nations depends upon the advocacy skills, creative resources and grass-roots reach of civil society organisations in all our work,” she said, paying a compliment to NGOs, described as “the world’s third superpower.”

The NGO representatives committed themselves, over the next 12 months, “to unify behind a common vision of collaboration — even if we disagree on tactics — to develop and implement plans for adaptation and mitigation, taking into account the full range of consequences.”

Development aid from OECD countries fell 5.1% in 2006

The 22 member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, the world’s major donors, provided USD 103.9 billion in aid in 2006, down by 5.1% from 2005, in constant 2005 dollars. This figure includes USD 19.2 billion of debt relief, notably exceptional relief to Iraq and Nigeria. Excluding debt relief, other forms of aid fell by 1.8%.
Sixteen of the DAC’s 22 member countries met the 2006 targets for ODA that they set at the 2002 Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development. However, aid to sub-Saharan Africa, excluding debt relief, was static in 2006, leaving a challenge to meet the Gleneagles G8 summit commitment to double aid to Africa by 2010.

Total official development assistance (ODA) from members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) fell by 5.1% in 2006 to USD 103.9 billion. This represents 0.30% of members’ combined Gross National Income. In real terms this is the first fall in ODA since 1997, though the level is still the highest recorded with the exception of 2005.

The fall was predicted. ODA was exceptionally high in 2005 due to large Paris Club debt relief operations (notably for Iraq and Nigeria) which boosted ODA to its highest level ever at USD 106.8 billion. In 2006, net debt relief grants still represented a substantial share of net ODA, as members implemented further phases of the Paris Club agreements, providing a little over USD 3 billion for Iraq and nearly USD 11 billion for Nigeria. Excluding debt relief, ODA fell by 1.8%.
Preliminary data show that bilateral net ODA to sub-Saharan Africa rose by 23% in real terms, to about USD 28 billion. However most of the increase was due to debt relief grants. Excluding debt relief for Nigeria, aid to sub-Saharan Africa increased by only 2%.

The only countries to reach or exceed the United Nations target of 0.7% of GNI were Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark. The largest donor in 2006 was the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany. The combined ODA of the fifteen members of the DAC that are EU members accounted for 57% of total net ODA.

In 2006, net ODA by the United States was USD 22.7 billion, a fall of 20% in real terms. Its ODA/GNI ratio also fell to 0.17%. The fall was mostly due to debt relief which was exceptionally high in 2005 as the United States forgave all its outstanding debt with Iraq in 2005 rather than spreading it over several years. US disbursements to Sub-Saharan Africa (USD 5.6 billion) reached a record high mainly due to debt relief (USD 1.4 billion, of which Nigeria was USD 0.6 billion) and increased disbursements for education, HIV/AIDS and malaria programmes. Net ODA flows to Iraq remained substantial (USD 4.8 billion), to Afghanistan increased (USD 1.6 billion) and to the least developed countries were at their highest level ever (USD 5.5 billion).

Japan’s net ODA was USD 11.6 billion, representing 0.25% of its GNI. The 9.6% fall in real terms since 2005 was partly due to exceptionally large expenditures in 2005, including humanitarian relief for the Indian Ocean tsunami and debt relief grants to Iraq. Japan’s net ODA has been on a downward trend since 2000, except for an increase in 2005 due to debt relief. The 2006 ODA total includes an increase in Japan’s contributions to the International Financial Institutions.
The combined ODA of the fifteen DAC-EU members rose slightly by 2.7% in real terms, from USD 55.7 billion in 2005 to USD 58.9 billion in 2006. This represented 0.43% of their combined GNI, surpassing the EU collective ODA/GNI target of 0.39%. The increase in 2006 was mainly due to debt relief grants.

Aid rose in ten DAC EU member countries as follows:

• Ireland (33.7%), reflecting increasing bilateral aid as well as large multilateral contributions,
• Spain (20.3%), due to a large increase in contributions to the UN and other multilateral, organisations, as well as an increase in disbursements by AECI, the Spanish Co-operation Agency
• Sweden (15%), due to general scaling up of its aid and debt relief,
• United Kingdom (13.1%), due to a substantial increase in contributions to international organisations,
• Aid also rose in Denmark (2.9%), France (1.4%), Germany (0.9%), Luxembourg (4.9%),
• Netherlands (4.2%) and Portugal (0.6%).

Falls were noted in Austria (-6.0%), Belgium (-2.7%), Finland (-9.9%), Greece (-4.1%) and Italy (-30%, mainly due to the timing of its contributions to international organisations).
Aid provided by the European Commission rose by 5.7% to USD 10.2 billion reflecting increased budget support and improved disbursement capacity from the higher level of commitments made in recent years.

ODA from other DAC countries rose, or fell, from 2005 to 2006 as follows:

• Australia (22.8%), primarily due to debt relief, notably to Iraq and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative,
• Canada (-9.2%), due to the decline in debt relief and lower levels of humanitarian aid compared to the extraordinary response to the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2005,
• New Zealand saw no change (0.0%),
• Norway (-2.2%),
• Switzerland (-7%), due to the lower volume of debt relief grants provided.

Net ODA data reported by seven non-DAC economies rose, or fell, from 2005 to 2006, as follows:

• Chinese Taipei (3.6%),
• Czech Republic (6.4%), due to increased contributions to the EC,
• Iceland (55.3%), due to a general scaling up of Iceland’s contribution to development cooperation,
• Korea (-44.6%), due to lower contributions to the World Bank and regional development banks,
• Latvia (-1.0%),
• Lithuania (15.2%), as it increased its contributions to the EC,
• Slovak Republic (-9.1%), as bilateral aid fell.

Only five countries are giving what they promised

The world’s richest countries, the OECD-members have promised to give 0,7 percent of their GNI to foreign development aid. They made the first promise in the 1970is and have renewed it many times over the years.

This is the truth today.

The countries who make it
1. Norway, 0,94 %
2. Sweden, 0,94 %
3. Luxemburg, 0,84 %
4. Netherlands, 0,82 %
5. Denmark, 0,81 %

The countries who don´t make it
6. Belgium, 0,53 %
7. Austria, 0,53 %
8. France, 0,47 %
9. United Kingdom, 0,47 %
10. Finland, 0,46 %
11. Switzerland, 0,44 %
12. Ireland, 0,42 %
13. Germany, 0,36 %
14. Canada, 0,34 %
15. Italy, 0,29 %
16. Japan, 0,28 %
17. Spain, 0,27 %
18. New Zeeland, 0,27 %
19. Australia, 0,25 %
20. United States, 0,22 %
21. Portugal, 0,21 %
22. Greece, 0,17 %

This statistics are from 2005.

Venezuela becomes a major development donor

Venezuela has made pledges of more than $8.8 billion in assistance to other Latin American countries this year, nearly triple the $3 billion the U.S. gave the region in 2005.

The oil exporting Venezuela, with their own 38 percent poverty are choosing to give close to 5 percent of their GDP in development aid. Makes them the country in the world with the highest level of aid per capita.

If the money is well spended, this could give South America a boost to build infrastructure and new initiatives in many countries in the region.

More information at Washington Post.

The new Swedish development aid focus

 The work against poverty in Africa will be the focus of the Swedish development aid. Focuses will the stronger on reform work in Eastern Europe, on peace/security, democracy and human rights.

- The focus will be on Africa where the needs are the highest, says the Swedish minister of development aid, Gunnilla Carlsson.

The focus will be on 30 countries:

Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Bolivia will get a long-term bilateral support.

Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Eastern Timor, Iraq, Palestine, Colombia and Guatemala will get a conflict support to build poverty reduction and a peace process.

Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine will get support from the Eastern Europe division.

The Director of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Göran Holmqvist, welcomes the initiative.

- Sida welcomes the Government’s work to reduce the number of countries in which we have development cooperation. For a long time we have communicated to the Government the need to make development cooperation more effective.

We need you ideas

On October 17, millions of people around the world will stand up and speak out against poverty. We will do it as well.

And what can we do? We’re looking for ideas of publications, events, actions and more how we can make our voices heard and tell the world about the Millennium Development Goals and what needs to be done.

Do you have an idea, or do you want to be a part of our work, please contact us at info@tellusblog.com.

Stand Up against poverty on October 17

On October 17, join millions of people from around the world to Stand Up and Speak Out against poverty and inequality.

In 2000, world leaders from 189 countries signed up to the Millennium Development Goals, a global plan to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

Last year, more than 23 million people in 87 countries stood up and took action to remind them of this promise. It was the largest single coordinated mobilization in the history of the Guinness World Records.

In 2007, we are at half time – but the world is falling behind.

This year, you can join this growing movement of people calling on our leaders to take action now.

On October 17, 2007 Stand Up and Speak Out!

More information
Stand Up Against Poverty