UN Day for South-South Cooperation: CBD Executive Secretary Addresses Disaster Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation [viewed]
17 December 2008: On the occasion of the fifth annual UN Day for South-South Cooperation and the Launch of the Global South-South Development Expo, organized by the UN Development Programme on 17 December 2008, Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), drew attention to statistics coming from climate-related natural disasters.
December 2008: The SEED Initiative, a global network founded in 2002 by IUCN, the UN Development Programme and the UN Environment Programme to contribute towards the goals in the UN’s Millennium Declaration and the commitments made at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, has called for nominations for its annual award. 
December 2008: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) presented a submission, titled Use of biochar (charcoal) to replenish soil carbon pools, restore soil fertility and sequester carbon dioxide, to the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA4), which convened in Poznań, Poland, from 1-10 December 2008. 
17 December 2008: In his last press conference for 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the coming year promises to be as difficult as 2008, which he called “the year of multiple crises.” He added that 2009 will be “the year of climate change” and noted progress made in Poznań, Poland, at the UNFCCC conference. 
17 December 2008: During a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, US, George Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Office, noted that businesses worldwide are recognizing that social and environmental governance issues are essential for long-term profitability. 
16 December 2008: In response to the likely increase in both the frequency and severity of disasters due to climate change, the World Bank has launched a book containing a set of guidelines to help countries preemptively collect the data vital for effective relief operations, to avoid compounding the original catastrophe. The book, entitled “Data Against Natural Disasters,” was launched jointly by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Bank. 
December 2008: The World Bank is working with six pilot countries – Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Vietnam– on a US$8 million study funded by the Governments of the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland to help decision makers in developing countries better understand and assess the risks posed by climate change, and to better cost, prioritize, sequence and integrate adaptation strategies into their development plans and budgets. 
16 December 2008: The year 2008 is likely to rank as the tenth warmest year on record, since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 
15 December 2008: Joel Boutroe, UN Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator for Haiti, delivered a statement on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a seminar on Climate Change and the Environment, which convened in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 13 December 2008. In the statement, Ban noted the urgent need “to come together as a global community” to find common solutions to common problems such as climate change. 
