“We’re back!”

These famous words by the US negotiator a few years ago, shortly after the election of Obama, had a less than positive tone for me this morning walking into the International Conference Centre, venue of this year’s UN Climate Summit.

After four intercessionals (negotiating…

This year’s UN climate negotiations in Durban are now entering the final stages. Heads of State and Ministers are giving short sharp speeches. Ambassadors and senior diplomats are discussing bottom lines and compromises. Environment groups are following the twists and turns, planning their next moves.

Against the backdrop of the current food crisis in East…

Reverend Tafue Lusama knows a thing or two about the urgency to tackle climate change. Living in Tuvalu, he has seen the climate changing over the last twenty years. Rising sea levels, storm surges and ocean acidification have had devastating impacts of people’s culture, livelihoods and ability to grow food. A few…

Dark, humid, noisy and little ventilation. This is the location of the Australian Government offices here at the UN climate talks. It is also where on Wednesday morning, some colleagues and I had the chance to meet with Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet.

Although this was a very short meeting, I took the window…

 

 

“A camel is a horse made by committee and the Green Climate Fund needs to come out of the blocks like a race horse and start helping poor people”.

This was the comment from Singapore in the opening negotiation session on the Green Climate Fund…

The climate negotiations currently underway in South Africa are particularly interesting for Australia, as we are attending with a carbon emissions tax in place.

I met with Louise Hand, Australia’s Ambassador at the UN Climate talks in Durban to discuss the position Australia is taking at COP 17. This gave her the opportunity to outline exactly what…

Today, thousands of people took the streets of Durban, South Africa demanding climate action. Trade unionists, churches, young people, farmers, women’s groups and NGOs such as Oxfam all marched from downtown Durban to the entrance of the UN Climate Summit singing, dancing and nosily calling for our leaders to make progress in the final week of talks.…

Today, I addressed the UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa on behalf of Climate Action Network. A little nervous, excited and keen to play my part this is what I said:

Thank you Madame Chair.



I am speaking on behalf of the Climate Action Network.We’d like to thank you and the Parties for opening this session and for the opportunity to take the floor today.



CAN respectfully urges the Parties, in the context of the adoption here in Durban of an ambitious…

With key discussions around the Green Climate Fund, set-up to provide life saving assistance to poor countries, and the future of Kyoto Protocol starting to sizzle. What's more, I just addressed the talks on behalf of the Climate Action Network in a session on what the legal form of a future global climate change agreement could look…

Farhana Yamin, the Climate Change Portfolio Manager for The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, sat down with me to discuss legal issues inside the Durban climate talks.