December 2008: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a brochure entitled “Renewable Energy Essentials: Wind.” This series of publications provides key facts relating to major aspects of each renewable energy technology.
December 2008: As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2008, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has stressed that a wide range of universally recognized rights – such as the right to food, to adequate housing and water, and to life – are under threat due to climate change. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the Poznań Climate Change Conference to take into account the human rights impacts of climate change, and to protect the most vulnerable people.
2 December 2008: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for increased investment in a plant breeding technique that uses radiation to produce improved high-yielding plants that adapt to harsh climate conditions and that could therefore contribute to the fight against hunger.
2 December 2008: During the annual session of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19-21 November 2008, its Committee on Sustainable Energy welcomed the announcement of the award of three contracts for work on energy efficiency.
2 December 2008: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a report entitled Climate Change and Food Security in Pacific Island Countries, jointly published with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the University of the South Pacific. The report warns that climate change-related disasters such as cyclones, flash floods and droughts have constrained development efforts in the Pacific islands and are likely to have a serious impact on their food production.
1 December 2008: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has issued a notification indicating that, on 25 November 2008, the Technical Project Manager of the state of Paraná, Brazil, Sergio Mudrovitsch de Bittencourt, and the head of the state’s forestry department, Paulo Caçola, officially delivered a report on the carbon offset programme for the operations of the Secretariat of the CBD from the ninth to tenth meetings of its Conference of the Parties (COP), as defined in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the CBD Executive Secretary, Ahmed Djoghlaf, and the Governor of Paraná, Roberto Requião.
1 December 2008: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has convened economists, academics and leaders of private and public institutions at an “International Workshop to take forward the Global Initiative on the Green Economy.” The workshop, which is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, is considering the US$4 million UN Green Economy Initiative, which was launched on 22 October 2008, and seeks to respond to the global economic downturn by focusing policymakers on the promise of economic growth and job creation in environmental industries.
1 December 2008: The UN Climate Change Conference opened in Poznan, Poland, on 1 December, bringing together around 11,000 participants from government, business and industry, environmental groups and research institutions.
1 December 2008: A capacity development workshop for the Pacific region on national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), mainstreaming of biodiversity and the integration of climate change will be held from 2-6 February 2009, in Nadi, Fiji.
1 December 2008: At a side event during the UN Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Poznan, Poland, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will launch a booklet entitled “Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2008,” which shows the climate change mitigation potential of nuclear power.
