19 November 2008: The 15th meeting of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for
Impact and Climate Analysis (TGICA) opened on 19 November 2008, at the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and will
conclude on 21 November.
18 November 2008: The Second Committee (Economic and
Financial) of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), at its 63rd session, approved by
consensus a draft resolution calling on the international community to step up
assistance to countries affected by the El Niño phenomenon.
18 November 2008: The second meeting of the Focus Group on
information and communication technologies (ICTs) and climate change,
established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), will convene
from 25-28 November 2008, at ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
17 November 2008: Addressing the first meeting of the Ad Hoc
Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Biodiversity and Climate Change of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is meeting from 17-21 November
2008, in London, UK, CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf recalled that the
Group’s objective is to provide biodiversity-relevant information to the UNFCCC
through the provision of scientific and technical advice and assessment on the
integration of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into
climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.
17 November 2008: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has
launched, with Green Cross International and the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, the Green Star Awards.
17 November 2008: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has
appointed Margareta Wahlström (Sweden) as Assistant Secretary-General for
Disaster Risk Reduction and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action in the Secretariat for the
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
17 November 2008: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has
released the reports from recent meetings of its Methodology Panel,
Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R) Working Group, and Small Scale Working
Group (SSC WG).
14 November 2008: The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Council re-elected Monique Barbut as CEO during its biannual meeting, which
took place from 11-13 November 2008, in Washington DC, US. The Council also
renewed efforts to scale up technology transfer to developing countries looking
to mitigate and adapt to climate change challenges, by approving projects
amounting to US$50 million for climate-related activities.
14 November 2008: The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) Ad Hoc
Expert Group on Finance convened in Vienna, Austria, from 10-14 November 2008,
to develop proposals for the development of a voluntary global financial
mechanism/portfolio approach/forest financing framework to support: the
implementation of sustainable forest management (SFM); the achievement of the
global objectives on forests; and the implementation of the non-legally binding
instrument on all types of forests.
November 2008: The 38th Session of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is scheduled to convene from 24-25 November 2008, at World Meteorological Organization (WMO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
