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Written by: ofurpaur

Category: YAR & Features

Published: 23 December 2009

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During the UNFCCC COP15 conference 2009 The Arctic Portal covered the event by gathering interesting material and publishing it on it's site. A compilation of this material can be found here bellow.

The 15^th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 15) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will be held in December 7-18 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The COP15 is of special significance because of the goals set forth in the Bali Road Map, where it was stated that in Copenhagen, a post-Kyoto Protocol action is to be negotiated.

Here you can follow the COP15 Conference, read the latest news and get information on the most current issues concerning climate change. Climate Change has be identified as one of the key issues of the Polar regions and the outcome of COP 15 therefor highly important.

Visit the official COP15 website

Multimedia Content

Highlights Published daily from Cop15

For those interested in the presentation of the Greenland Ice Sheet- and Melting Ice-reports at COP15, there was an entire side event was webcasted by the UNFCCC. It has now been published on the UNFCCC website and can be viewed by following clicking the Icon Below

News by date

16.12.09 Cop 15 President resigns

COP15 president Connie Hedegaard resigned this morning. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will replace her as head of the Conference. Hedegaard has maintained herself that nothing dramatic is behind her resignation and that she will continue her work as a negotiator in the COP15 as a special representative of Mr. Lokke Rasmussen. Over 100 heads of States will arrive to Copenhagen for the last three days of negotiations and it is only natural that the Danish Prime Minister takes over the presidency of the Conference at this point, she said.

As the stakes are getting higher only three days being left of the Conference, the political pressure is increasing. Developing countries are not satisfied with the draft laid down by the industrialized countries and it seems increasingly difficult to get industrialized countries to agree upon Kyoto-like procedure, where developed countries bear the main responsibility of the emission reduction.

14.12.09 Climate Talks in Turbulence

China, India and other developing nations boycotted Climate talks today, as a protest and to demand that rich countries discuss a far more extensive cut in their emissions. This is believed to include 135 nations, which will refuse to participate in any formal working groups until the issue was resolved. This has to bee seen as a setback for the talks, and illustrates the long-term dispute between rich and poor nations over emissions cuts and financing cuts to deal with climate change. This has however not been interpreted as the talks are falling apart al together but rather as a ploy intended to move the agenda to the responsibilities of the industrial countries before the arrival of over 100 world leaders are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.

14.12.09 Protest in Copenhagen

More than 200 Protestors were arrested in Copenhagen on Sunday. Approximately 1000 protesters from across Europe were present, the crowd started targeting the Danish shipping giant Moller-Maersk which is when the Police decided to intervene. When some of the activists refused to cooperate an entire group of 200 people were arrested including a times reporter. The protesters were moved to a warehouse in Valby which has been set up with contemporary holding cells. A police spokeswoman confirmed around 200 arrest and pointed out that it was an illegal demonstrations and that some of the activists brought gas masks and things to throw. Yesterday 968 protesters where arrested during a mass march on the summit venue yesterday afternoon, out of these 968 all but 13 have been released.

10.12.09

So far the major issues around the Copenhagen COP15 have concentrated on the participation of world leaders to one of the biggest gathering in the field of environmental law and politics. The aim is to reach an agreement on post-Kyoto CO2 emission reduction. Many leading scientists maintain that the world's CO2 rate has reached dangerous levels and that if nothing is done to reduce the emissions the world will face unprecedented consequences. Legally binding agreement for the world's leading polluters is inevitably necessary, but it is debatable whether the political will of states is enough to create any change.

In addition to the politicians, Copenhagen has attracted a vast amount of representatives from different fields of civil society. In recent years, many global movements have been created around the action against climate change and many of them have now gathered to Copenhagen. On Wednesday a small group of activists from 350 movement demonstrated outside the conference hall demanding fair and legally binding climate deal. Further, members from other global movements, such as Tck and many others are gathering to People's Climate Summit, an NGO Summit, to draft what they call "A People's Declaration".

Despite the huge pressure to seal the deal in Copenhagen, some doubts have been expressed on whether the solutions that are on the table are the best ones and whether they actually solve any of the problems. Just last week one of the leading climate change scientists James Hansen from Nasa’s Goddard Institute, expressed his doubts on the existing emission trade system comparing it to selling indulgences. He claimed that under the Kyoto mechanisms rich countries buy cheap emission credits from developing countries contributing that way to the existing economic unbalance in the world and some of the worst poverty scenarios. Further, it has been maintained that the Kyoto mechanisms do not actually address the real problem, the CO2 emission, but are one more scam for large corporations to gain money.

Here below you can watch Annie Leonard's provocative and eye-opening short film on cap and trade, the main mechanism in use to combat CO2 pollution.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM]

09.12.09 Danish Draft Leaked to Media

Guardian / cop15.dk - There seems to be a great change coming in the climate change negotiations, after the "Danish" draft of an agreement was leaked to media yesterday. The developing countries accuse the draft of being a legalisation of the developing / industrialized division in the world and contributing to the already existing problems in the developing countries. The UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer on the other hand said that only an informal paper is in question and that formal proposals will be only provided by the Chairs of the Conference.

It will be though interesting to see if the text of the "draft" gives any hint of what can be expexted on behalf of the industrialized countries and whether the so much talked about political will is actually only a wishful thinking. What is sure is that the negotiations are of crucial importance for the global community and a just and equal agreement should be reached for the benefit of us all.

04.12.09 Climate Investment funds

Now when almost all the major players have announced their emission reduction targets, the talk has turned to money and the ways the battle against climate change can be financed. The US has proposed that a new climate fund should be established under the World Bank, which would direct funding to climate projects in developing countries. Further, the Asian Development Bank intends to direct 700 million dollars to two new investment funds that will primarily concentrate on financing climate change projects in developing countries. In short term, it has been estimated, that some 10 billion dollars are needed to cover the costs of the most current developments. In long term, some 100 billion dollars a year might be needed to cover the costs of climate change adaptation.

04.12.09

Arctic Council - During the COP15, December 7- December 18, an Arctic Venue will be held at The North Atlantic Quay in Copenhagen. In the Venue, Arctic cooperation and the latest Arctic research will be introduced as well as the Arctic reality as it appears today to the Arctic residents presented in various exhibitions, booths, posters, lectures and debates. The Quay itself will be wrapped up as an iceberg, an installation designed by Greenlandic artist Inuk Silis Høegh.The Venue is open daily during the COP15 between 12.00-18.00.

(image: Arctic Council)

04.12.09 Call for New Climate Change Solutions

The Times - As aspired as a new global climate change agreement in Copenhagen is, it has begun to seem that an agreement with almost any content is enough. One of the world's leading climate change scientists, James Hansen from Nasa’s Goddard Institute, has expressed his doubts on the existing emission trade system comparing it to selling indulgences. Rich countries buy emission credits from developing countries with relatively small amounts and contribute that way to the existing economic inbalance between industrialized and developing countries. The system in itself is not designed to reduce emissions, but rather to create an image of reduction and equality, though failing in both. Very few open discussions have taken place on what exactly should be the content of the new agreement and little or none public evaluation on the success or failure of the Kyoto protocol has taken place.

Recently, the UN carbon trade management body suspended Chinese wind power farm plans due to the lack of "additionality", a condition that is required for any project to qualify as a "Clean Development Mechanism". It is suspected that China has used the CDM system to finance projects that would have in any case been constructed, thus not adding any clean energy mechanisms through the investment into already planed energy scheme.

It is clear that before further steps are taken in global climate change discourse, the mechanisms existing today must be evaluated and new and better solutions developed to enable a real battle against the world wide problem of global warming.

04.12.09 COP15 Participants from Arctic Countries

Already 65 world leaders have confirmed their attendance to the COP15 in Copenhagen in two weeks. What is, however, still unclear is whether the heads of states of the world's top three carbon polluters - USA, China and India - will attend. The Arctic countries are well represented in the climate change conference, since in addition of being hosted by Denmark, the conference will attract JIm Prentice, the Minister of the Environment and Michael Martin, Chief Negotiator and Ambassador for Climate Change from Canada and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister and Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Minister of the Environment from Iceland. In addition, Finland will send both the Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and the President Tarja Halonen in association with Paula Lehtomaki, the Minister of the Environment and Jan Vapaavuori, the Minister for Housing and Nordic Cooperation.

Sweden and Norway are yet to announce their delegation, but they are as well expected to send a high-profile delegation.

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Written by: ofurpaur

Category: YAR & Features

Published: 30 November 2009

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Background

One of the major international environmental and political challenges of our time is the climate change. It has been known for some time now, but for economic reasons it has been very difficult to find shared stand on what to do and how to do it. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in 2005, is the first legally binding climate change solution that the international community has been able to agree upon.

The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol are the targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the limits, the Kyoto Protocol introduces three mechanisms how the targets are to be met. Primarily, the countries were to reduce the emissions through national measures, meaning that they were to take action to actually diminish their greenhouse gas pollution. But since the economies of most countries are highly dependent on industries that are high polluters, three other mechanisms were introduced to ease the reduction scheme.

The industrialized countries were given opportunity to trade emission units they themselves did not use, earn emission credits by implementing an emission-reduction project in developing countries or earn emission reduction units from a joint investment on emission-reduction or emission removal project in another industrialized country.

Major Post-Kyoto Challenges

All has come to nothing the fact being that almost all the industrialized countries that have ratified the Kyoto protocol are far from their targets for 2012. Another, and perhaps even more severe, drawback is that the biggest polluters in the world, the USA, China and India, either did not ratify the Protocol or were not categorized as industrialized countries under the Protocol thus not being under any emission reduction scheme.

The Bali Road Map, adopted in the 13^th Conference of Parties (COP) in 2007 in Bali, Indonesia includes the Bali Action Plan, which charted the course for a new negotiation process designed to create a climate change solution package for post-Kyoto era. The Bali Action Plan identified the COP 15, the upcoming Copenhagen UN Climate change Conference as the major event, where a new legally binding post-Kyoto agreement is to be enacted.

One of the major challenges for the Copenhagen Conference has been the engagement of the world's biggest leaders. Despite the very good ratification situation, the Kyoto Protocol fails to address some of the major problems of today, namely the emergence of new industrialized powers. China has already announced that it aims at cutting its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output – a target aimed at keeping its surging growth while still reining in pollution, while India has not clearly expressed its will to cut emissions, but only to accept "deviation from business as usual". The US, which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol has as well already announced that it is going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 17%.

Now at the eve of the Conference many significant countries have announced their willingness to sign a binding treaty on emission reduction. The Commonwealth, a 53-member state union, has stated that a deal should be adopted no later than next year and 10 billion US dollars should be made available to help developing countries to reach their emission goals.

The COP15 negotiations start on Monday, December 7 and will be carried out throughout the two week period closing session being on Friday, December 18. In addition to the actual COP15, 5^th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 5) will also be held in Copenhagen at the same dates. Further, 31^st Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 31), 31^st Session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 31), 10^th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 10) and 8th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA 8) will takes place in Copenhagen between the December 7 and December 18.

For more information and for latest news, please visit the COP15 homepage

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3x4OnMPeCs]

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Written by: ofurpaur

Category: YAR & Features

Published: 20 November 2009

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In the recent years the Arctic has gained attention due to the changes in the climate and the affects it has had on the northern environment. What is, however, less talked about is the socio-economic reality that faces people in the Arctic societies, not only because of the climate change, but also because of globalization and changes in global market economies.

It is well known that the Arctic has enormous resources of oil and gas and for the past 30 years or so, the exploitation of the northern natural resources has become more feasible than ever before, which has accumulated the initiatives of so called megaprojects in northern areas. These projects are in most cases either financed by multinational corporation or they are state funded in a form of Crown corporations or other publicly owned corporations. They have been in most cases criticized of being environmental monsters destroying or creating a risk of demolition of large areas of nature around the project. In addition, the human impact of these activities has been criticized.

Even though these megaprojects – huge in scale, both environmentally and financially speaking – are in the first place designed to produce profit for the shareholders, they have been in many cases also beneficial for the local communities “hosting” the project.

Benefits of mega-projects in the north

The largest expectations are in many cases directed to the possible employment the project will offer for the local people. In the construction phase, the project can provide significant amount of employment. In many small and remote communities, exactly unemployment is one of the major problems causing poverty and other social problems. When the construction phase is over, however, the employment opportunities also decline as low as to 150 persons for a large-scale industry, making the employment only short-term.

In addition to the employment, possible benefit from a megaproject is the income in to the community in a form of profit to the local shareholders, taxes and increase in local retail. A construction of a megaproject usually booms the local retail to manifold because of the migrant workers who come with the construction.

The possibility to directly profit from the project depends usually on the ownership of the land. Very few local companies or individuals have the money to invest in the projects in a scale that counts economically for the community. Thus, the only way for the locals to profit from the projects has been through being a shareholder or through bilateral contracts between the company and the community.

The Mackenzie Gas project is a good example of a megaproject where the local peoples of the area have had an immense impact on the project. Not only are they shareholders in the project through Aboriginal Pipeline group, but they are also participating in The Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project, which will assess the possible environmental and socio-economic effects associated with the proposed pipeline construction.

Third significant benefit is without a doubt the infrastructure that has to be built in and around the community to meet the needs of the project itself and the people who come with the project. Sometimes, these remote communities have not got the funding for necessary infrastructure because of their remoteness and low density in population, but since population growth - at least temporarily – is inevitable in connection with megaprojects the infrastructure has to be updated and developed.

Costs of megaprojects

Though there are some quite impressive benefits connected to the megaprojects, it must be said that the costs seem to be at least equally impressive.

Despite the scale of the projects, very little of the wealth seems to be left in the communities and the little that is left leaks in many cases back to south where it came from in the first place. Even though the local communities were shareholders in the project, majority of the profit goes outside of the area with the multinational corporations. Further, to tempt the international corporations to invest in the project, some “carrots” need to be offered. They are many times in a form of tax reliefs leading to a loss of revenue for the territory. In addition, even though the migrant workers increase the local retail, the money spent does not stay in the community, since many of the products sold in the retails are manufactured in south and imported to the community. The increase is thus often only temporary, large amount of the work force returning back home as soon as the construction phase is over, or in two to four years.

Another quite impressive cost that follows megaprojects is the environmental damage the project causes, both to the environment itself, but also to the people who live from the land.

Many of the projects are situated on the traditional lands of indigenous peoples. In many places reindeer or caribou herding is still exercised making these lands very important for the survival of the herders. If the indigenous peoples do not have an ownership over the lands, they can either loss significant herding land or in extreme cases be forced to relocate as has been done in many oil and gas fields in northern Russia. In The James Bay project environmental organizations actually managed to prevent the construction of the second phase of the project by claiming that it would cause irreparable harm both to the environment and the peoples of the area.

In addition to the leakages of wealth and environmental damages, some argue that megaprojects are often connected with large social problems in the local communities. Factors like big salaries, large migration worker populations and restlessness that the workers experience in the periodical working situations away from home add to criminal behavior and drug and alcohol abuse, which in turn can cause social problems in the community.

Mitigation of negative impacts on local residents

As has been done in the Mackenzie Gas Project, the best way to mitigate the negative impacts of megaprojects on the local residents is to involve them in the project. Best way to do that is to include them financially as shareholders as in Mackenzie so that they not only can have their say in the preparation, but can also benefit financially from the exploitation of their lands.

In connection with the Mackenzie Project, both the local and federal administrators have gone even further by initiating a seven-member joint review panel to assess the potential impacts of the project on the environment and lives of the people in Mackenzie valley. What is quite progressive is that approximately half of the panel is composed of indigenous people’s representatives from their own societies, which without a doubt increases the value of the assessment.

The possible profit income for the society enables the local people to enhance their communal infrastructure by building necessary institutions and employing staff in areas where it is most needed in that particular community. In addition, many different kinds of educational projects could be connected to the megaprojects, especially in the construction phase, where young locals could be educated in carpentry, as electricians and plumbers, teachers, midwifes and nurses - providing the community thus knowhow locally which otherwise would be sought in larger cities. These educational projects could be used to mitigate the financial leakages that occur when services are bought from outside communities.

It must also be assured that tax revenues from the projects are used to benefit the local community, even though they would be collected by the province or territory. This requires special arraignments with the government, but should not be impossible to negotiate, especially in the light of the internationally recognized special rights of indigenous peoples.

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Written by: ofurpaur

Category: YAR & Features

Published: 12 November 2009

Hits: 6175

The Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group has concluded it's regular meeting in Copenhagen Denmark 10-11 Nov. The transaction being made between the Norwegian chairmanship between 2006-2009 and the Danish Chairmanship creates a perfect opportunity to give a general overview of the SDWG and cover some of the work that has been done under the Norwegian chairmanship. The Danish chairmanship will be led by Marianne Lykke Thomsen as head chair of the working group.

The Working Group on sustainable Development was established at the first Arctic council Ministerial meeting in september 1998 in Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada. " The objective of the SDWG is to protect and enhance the economies, culture and health of the inhabitants of the Arctic, in an environmentally sustainable manner. Currently the Sustainable Development Working Group is involved in projects in the areas of children and youth, health, telemedicine, resource management, cultural and ecological tourism, and living conditions in the Arctic." It is clear that the SDWG has a very broad mandate as can be seen in both the Sustainable Development Terms of Reference (1998) as well as the Sustainable Development Framework Document (2000) that the SDWG has a very broad framework.

Projects are not directly managed by the SDWG. Lead countries in each project report to the SDWG at regular meetings and other SDWG participants offer their comments. Each project has one or more lead countries as well as a project team of experts from participating Arctic states. The outcome of this work can bee seen by following the links below to current releases of the SDWG under the Norwegian chairmanship as well as a link to prior projects.

Reports of SDWG Projects and Activities