What We’re Reading 11/23/09

Nov 23rd, 2009 10:57 AM UTC
By Chandler Smith

AllAfrica.com: Experts Seek Inclusion of Agriculture in Climate Talks
More than 60 prominent agricultural scientists and leaders have decried the almost total absence of agriculture in the climate talks, warning that the climate deal to be reached next month could lead to widespread famine and food shortages in the years ahead. Signatories of a statement issued at the weekend in Rome, Italy, by leading thinkers in development include five World Food Prize laureates, former heads of development agencies, former Ministers of Agriculture, and heads of the world’s leading alliance of agricultural research centres.

Washington Post: The ultimate crop rotation
Countries in the Horn of Africa nation are becoming one of the world’s leading destinations for the booming business of land leasing. Governments across Southeast Asia, Latin America and especially Africa are seizing the chance to attract this new breed of investors, wining and dining executives and creating land-leasing agencies and land catalogues to showcase their offerings of earth. Increasingly, though, purely profit-seeking companies are snatching up land, making a simple, if somewhat grim, calculation. As one Saudi-backed businessman here put it, “The population of the world is increasing dramatically, so land and food supplies will be short, demand will be higher and prices will rise.”

The Guardian: Global body needed to direct green technology, G77 says
A green technology body with powers to direct a worldwide transition away from a high-carbon economy is needed to combat climate change, according to the world’s developing nations. While most negotiations ahead of the UN’s climate change summit in Copenhagen next month have been concerned with which nations should slash greenhouse gas emissions and by how much, the method in which these cuts will be achieved has received far less attention. Yet the importance of green technology – from wind turbines to electric cars to zero-carbon buildings – is enormous.

Reuters: Denmark says 65 leaders enrolled for climate talks
Sixty-five world leaders have confirmed they will attend next month’s U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen which Danish officials hope will bring strong political commitment for a new treaty to combat global warming. Though hopes of reaching a legally binding agreement have slipped into next year, Denmark 10 days ago upgraded the December 7-18 climate talks by inviting 191 heads of state and government to attend the final two days of the Copenhagen meeting to muster forces for a political deal. It remains unclear if U.S. President Barack Obama will attend.

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