11 December 2008: Wood-based energy bears significant potential as a fuel source for Serbia and other South-East European countries, concluded a workshop entitled “Woody Biomass - the Fuel Choice for Serbia,” held from 2-3 December 2008, in Belgrade, Serbia.
11 December 2008: The UN Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Government of Japan, will support twenty-one African countries in the development of their capacity to plan, implement and monitor flexible and long-term development policies for climate change adaptation.
11 December 2008: The Year End Snapshot of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), compiled by the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Risø Centre, reveals that worldwide over 4,200 CDM projects have been developed or are in operation.
11 December 2008: Speaking at the opening of the High-level Segment of the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, taking place in Poznań, Poland, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the urgency to take action, and called for renewed global solidarity to tackle the financial and climate change crises, calling the latter “the defining challenge of our era.”
10 December 2008: The UN Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Government of France and the regional government of Brittany, has created the ClimSat partnership. This new regional initiative – a network of public and private satellite providers – aims to offer satellite images free of charge to communities in 50 regions across the world to improve the monitoring of deforestation, desertification, changing rainfall patterns and other phenomena.
10 December 2008: UN Industrial and Development Organization (UNIDO) Director-General Kandeh Yumkella has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with two Brazilian energy companies, ITAIPU Binacional and Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (Eletrobrás), to promote renewable energy use.
10 December 2008: At a side event to the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Poznań, Poland, the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) launched a new report entitled “Innovation in Responding to Climate Change: Nanotechnology, Ocean Energy and Forestry.”
11 December 2008: The High-level Segment at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, opened on 11 December 2008. Four Heads of State and Government, as well as 145 Environment Ministers and senior government representatives, are scheduled to participate, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon making an opening statement.
10 December 2008: At a side event held during the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, in Poznan, Poland, members of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) discussed the role of insurers in developing innovative products to respond to the increasing number of weather-related disasters, to insure forests, and to smooth out uncertainties in renewable energy.
