Joseph Powell from the ONE UK office writes about a book launch he recently attended:

Last night ONE was lucky to attend the launch of Camilla Toulmin’s new book Climate Change in Africa, which provides a timely reminder of the damage being done to the continent by shifts in climate. The direct impacts include a rise in harvest failures in recent years as unpredictable water cycles and expanding drylands make the life of African farmers harder. In the Horn of Africa for example there have been 3 crop failures in the last 4 years, meaning in Ethiopia alone 6.2 million people are now in need of food assistance.

Toulmin highlighted the likely rise in conflict as resources such as water become scarcer, and the devastating impact that rising food and fuel prices can have on the poorest sectors of society. More indirectly the global demand for biofuels has seen large tracts of prime African farmland bought up by companies growing non-food crops.

Of course much of the recent debate has been around how Africa can adapt to climate change and that was also high on the agenda. Toulmin suggested realistic interventions such as diversifying farm production and argued that “it is absolutely vital to reach a deal at Copenhagen”. She estimated that anything up to $130 billion may be needed for adaptation costs in Africa alone and that the financing of this will be central to a good agreement.

Discussing the book, former Chief Scientist from the UK’s Department For Overseas Development, Sir Gordon Conway stressed that climate change would affect agriculture more than any other sector, with clear implications for the majority of sub-Saharan Africans. As a development issue, he argued, there will be little of greater importance over the coming decades.

As policy makers prepare to meet to negotiate a global climate deal next month Toulmin’s book provides a powerful case for ensuring that they keep the poorest in mind and take special consideration of Africa. Not only does climate change add yet another challenge for those struggling to combat extreme poverty and disease by exacerbating the conditions of poverty, but it threatens to erode the gains that have been made in recent years.

Last week Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Bob Corker (R-TN), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Development, Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection held a hearing on the Impacts of Climate Change in the World’s Most Vulnerable Nations.

The hearing included testimony from Reverend Jim Ball from Evangelical Environmental Network, David Waskow from Oxfam America, Dr. Kenneth Green from American Enterprise Institute, Peter Driscoll from ActionAid USA, and Gen. Charles Wald from CAN Military Advisory Board. The witnesses discussed the urgent need for scaled-up adaptation financing for developing countries and how to best organize such financing.

Participants agreed that financing for climate adaptation is urgent: Driscoll commented that there is no viable alternative to investing in a climate adaptation fund. Senator Corker noted the importance of streamlined funding to eliminate any wastefulness. Current climate legislation, he added, does not adequately address the problem.

Senator Menendez in his opening statement,outlined 4 key reasons why an adaptation fund is necessary, many of which were echoed by the witnesses:

1. National Interest: Strong adaptation financing gives the U.S. better positioning in international climate negotiations.
2. National Security: Increasing numbers of climate refugees will lead to greater competition over scarce resources, and in turn causing instability and conflict in already unstable parts of the world.
3. Ethics: A fund aimed at helping the world’s poorest people is “the right thing to do.”
4. Economic Growth: An international adaptation fund fosters economic security by helping local businesses and workers.

The participants emphasized that the U.S. must designate significant and meaningful resources to help the world’s poorest people take on the effects of climate change.

Today thousands of blogs are participating in Blog Action Day to spark discussion about an issue of global importance: Climate Change.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight some of the work ONE does exploring how climate change affects the world’s poorest. If you’d like to delve deeper, check out this Climate and Development issue brief that our Policy Team compiled explaining the nexus between climate change and development in clear detail.

And remember that we’re still asking the Senate to invest in helping the world’s poorest people overcome the threats posed by climate change. Please add your voice here. For more background on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, check out the Hot Topic here.

Happy Blog Action Day! As we told you earlier in the week, over 8,700 blogs around the world are taking part by devoting space to discussing climate change. Arjun Mody offers this great recap about our Climate Campaign:

Over the past several weeks, about 55,000 ONE members raised their hands, and asked their Senators to allocate 5% to helping the world’s poorest people overcome the threats posed by climate change.

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced S. 1733, “A bill to create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy” on September 30, 2009. The authors however left the allocation of emission allowances blank, so we still do not know how much will be dedicated to helping the world’s poorest people overcome the threats posed by climate change. The news on our efforts should be coming soon though: hearings in Senator Boxer’s Environment and Public Works Committee are slated to begin on October 27.

Many other Committees also have jurisdiction over the legislation as well, including the Agriculture Committee, Finance Committee, and Foreign Relations Committee. All of the work on the bill is scheduled to place before Thanksgiving.

Concurrent with the Senate process is the UNFCCC process which will culminate this December in Copenhagen. Recent meetings that took place in Bangkok developed proposals for the best structures to deliver adaptation resources. So our message is getting out there and we are gaining momentum here at home and internationally. Time is short, negotiations are in full swing, and our task is considerable, but this is the time where differences will be made.

-Arjun Mody

The ONE Blog just registered for this year’s Blog Action Day on Thursday… have you? The theme this year is Climate Change, and the idea is that blogs all over the world (over 6,000 at the time of this posting!) will pledge to devote space to the issue.

Here’s a short video produced by the folks at Blog Action Day explaining the event in more detail:

As you know, climate change is not a crisis of developing countries’ making, yet the impacts of global warming will disproportionately hit the world’s poorest people. ONE supports adaptation to help poor countries cope with the impact of climate change, and mitigation to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and avoid future emissions in developing countries.

So register your blog for Blog Action Day ‘09 here, and check back on the ONE Blog for our contribution this Thursday.

By 2050, the global temperature is expected to rise 2°C above pre-industrial levels causing, among other consequences, more intense and frequent rainfall and droughts, floods, increases in epidemics and water availability. For the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, adapting to these changes will be costly. However, almost no specific estimates of just how costly exist. To fill this gap, the World Bank launched the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) study in 2008. Last Wednesday, the third day of the climate change talks in Bangkok, the World Bank released initial results from this study, revealing that adaptation costs will indeed be significant.

The initial report found that the cost of adapting to an approximately 2°C warmer world will be between $75 billion and $100 billion a year. This estimate falls in the upper range of existing estimates, which are between $4 billion to $109 billion annually. According to the report, impacts on agriculture and fisheries, health, water availability, flood management and infrastructure will be the most severe. According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa will bear 20-22% of the annual costs of adaptation across sectors. Sub-Saharan Africa also bears by far the highest costs for water supply and flood management and by 2050, will shoulder more than 80 percent of adaptation costs in the health sector.

The report also emphasizes three main points. One, it is necessary to take measures for both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Adaptation financing, while vital to minimize the impacts of climate change, will not prevent future consequences. Adapting to an even warmer world would cause more costs, including coastal flooding, more malnutrition and disease, and extinction of half of the world’s species. Secondly, development must take on a new form to include adaptation efforts. Development and adaptation goes hand-in-hand, and one cannot be achieved without the other. Lastly, because of the large uncertainties about the future of climate change, flexible policies and more research are needed. These measures and considerations are vital to preventing an increasingly costly world due to climate change.

Such estimates on adaptation costs and research on the future of climate change are especially pertinent now as world delegates look toward the December Copenhagen conference, where leaders will attempt to formulate a global deal on climate change. Check out the full report here.

Today in Bangkok, on the heels of last week’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, world delegates embarked on the fourth of five major negotiating sessions before the UN Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations convene in December. The Bangkok meetings, scheduled to run until October 9, were preceded by the high-level UN Climate Change Summit called by Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon last week in New York. Although many of the 100 heads of state and government called for the enhancement of assistance for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to the impact of climate change at last week’s UN summit, the G20 leaders in Pittsburgh failed to collectively commit to scaling-up adaptation funds.

In the next two weeks in Bangkok, delegates will try to cut down and clarify a draft of the text that will lay the groundwork for Copenhagen. Further talks are expected on increasing financing for adaptation and mitigation, designing a legal framework and architecture for developing countries to act within and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.

In opening of the talks this morning, Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer warned that time to tackle key issues for a global agreement in December is limited. “Time is not just pressing, it has almost run out,” he explained, “But in two weeks, real progress can be made towards the goals that world leaders have set for the negotiations, to break deadlocks, and to cooperate toward concrete progress. As many leaders have said, ‘There is no plan B.’ And if we do not realize plan A, the future will hold us to account for it.”

After the conclusion of the meetings in Bangkok, delegates will gather again in Barcelona in November for one week of talks before convening in December in Copenhagen for the final negotiations. Stay tuned to the ONE blog for more updates.

-Pooja Gupta

Overall, the Pittsburgh G20 Summit appears to have made some progress towards reshaping global power structures to make them more representative, but it still has some way to go before it becomes a truly representative global decision making body.

I spent the summit with our US Government Relations Director Tom Hart, who said:

“Moving from the G8 to the G20 is a seismic shift: it brings many more of the world’s people to the table, but the new expanded world body must now start addressing the needs of the poorest countries, especially in Africa. For nearly a decade now, Africa has been squarely on the G8’s agenda, even if delivery on their commitments has been mixed. During this transition time, African development must not fall through the cracks. One way to show the world will not forget Africa would be to hold an upcoming G20 summit on the African continent.”

As I posted earlier here, we passed our petition, in which 75,000 ONE members worldwide call for a G20 Summit to be held in Africa, to the US delegation at the summit.

Below are some key points in the summit’s communique that are relevant to Africa:

• Agriculture – The G20 called on the World Bank to develop a new trust fund, as a way to implement the G8’s food security initiative announced at the L’Aquila Summit in Italy in July. This multilateral fund will support the set of principles championed by the White House to make aid for agriculture more effective, coordinated and geared towards the strategies developed by poor countries themselves.
• Climate change – The G20 failed to call for resources to help the poorest countries adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change, and tackle its causes. It was disappointing that there was no mention of the urgency of addressing these needs.
• African Development Bank – The G20 have reaffirmed the commitment to make sure the multilateral development banks have enough finance, especially the World soft loan arm, the International Development Association (IDA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The African bank has increased its lending to respond to the financial crisis by as much as US$4bn and now needs support to replenish its coffers. ONE welcomes Canada’s announcement of an extra US$2.8bn in loan guarantees for the Bank.
• World Bank and IMF- Both International Financial Institutions took steps towards increasing representation of developing countries.

Climate change is more firmly on the global agenda now more than ever, not just because the final round of the UN Climate Change Conference is taking place this December in Copenhagen, but because we are increasingly seeing the effects of climate change. ONE is also calling for the G20 to address climate change this weekend at the Pittsburgh G20 summit, but we’re keeping with our theme looking at it from the perspective that ‘Africa can be a part of the solution.’

Despite contributing only 3.6% of total global carbon emissions, sub-Saharan Africa will feel these effects—through droughts, floods, erratic rains that disrupt growing seasons—both first and worst. Any deal brokered in Copenhagen later this year must include the impact that climate change will have on the world’s poorest—and take into account the potential that developing countries hold to address climate change. The G20 meeting in Pittsburgh is the perfect place to get ahead start by working to do the following:

• Ensure that any global climate deal mobilizes funding to support the response to climate change in developing countries. In the short-term, agree on a down-payment to help developing countries deal immediately with the impact of climate change and build trust in international negotiations;
• Agree on principles to ensure that climate financing is spent predictably, effectively and through transparent governance structures;
• Ensure that a global climate deal considers Africa’s potential contribution toward reducing global carbon emissions, particularly in regard to carbon markets.

Not only will Africa bear the brunt of the climate change impact, but sub-Saharan African countries have the potential to help reduce global carbon emissions. The development of robust carbon markets, the adoption of low-carbon and leap-frog technologies, and the institution of carbon-offsetting programs like re-forestation projects can all flourish in the developing world—without sacrificing development, and maybe even encourage it.

ONE’s message at Pittsburgh is that no global recovery can be constructed in a stable manner if it excludes Africa, and the same goes for any discussion on climate change. We’ll be bringing you the latest from Pittsburgh as the week progresses, so keep an eye out here on the blog.

-Beth Adler

On Tuesday the World Bank Released the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change. The topic is particularly timely as the UN member states will be gathering in Copenhagen in December to attempt to construct a new global climate agreement, which will serve as the successor to the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted in 1997.

While substantial progress has been made in combating poverty and promoting development, there is a long way to go, and climate change makes development even more complicated. As the report outlines, the impacts of climate change, which are already being felt, will hit the developing world hardest, pushing more people into poverty and undoing years of successful poverty eradication. These impacts must be addressed. In addition, further investments in energy, transport, urban systems, and agricultural production are needed to ensure ongoing development and these investments will need to be ‘climate proofed’.

The report emphasizes that countries need to act now, act together, and act differently not just to address the impacts of climate change, but to continue to prioritize development without furthering the climate crisis. Developed countries can and must reduce their carbon footprint, and stop using more than their fair share of the ‘atmospheric commons’, says the report. It also notes that developing countries can shift to lower-carbon activities without endangering development or exacerbating poverty. However, more financial and technical assistance—both public and private—is needed from developed countries. The report cautions that only with swift, collaborative action can we create a “climate-smart” world, at a cost that will be high, but reasonable.

With regards to mitigation, the report notes that one key way to address climate change is to scale-up mitigation projects (new technologies, reforestation and forest protection, etc.) in the developing world, so that development can continue to take place in a climate-friendly way. The report finds that existing, low-carbon technologies and best-practices could reduce energy consumption and save money, while development takes place. In terms of adaptation, the report emphasizes that countries in the developing world will bear the brunt of the costs of climate change, and developing countries, particularly those most exposed, will need assistance in adapting to climate change. Climate finance must be expanded, it says, since current levels fall far short of estimated needs. According to the World Bank, Research and Development investments of $100-$700 billion annually will be needed, while only $13 billion of public funds and $40-$60 billion of private funds are currently invested.

Everyone knows climate is hot right now. What you might not know is that we’ll be following the lead-up to Copenhagen here on the blog, so be sure to check back.

-Beth Adler