IPS  - Africa needs urgent action on global warming. The consensus position adopted by African leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed. African environmental activists are now debating their way forward.

Samantha Bailey, Africa coordinator for the 350 Campaign, said activist organising had been a success.

In the framework of the international “TckTckTck” campaign, 350 held an international day of action on Oct. 24, 2009, which it says was “the biggest single day of political action ever to happen”. It involved 5,200 actions in 181 countries demanding a fair, ambitious and binding deal.

The 350 Campaign, founded in the United States by author Bill McKibben, was established to pressure governments to agree that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50291

Disappointed by the “failure” of the Copenhagen talks to adequately help poor countries adapt to climate change, the Burkina Faso government and farmers are working to adjust farming techniques to changing weather patterns.

“Despite the failure of Copenhagen we must follow adaptation at our own cost because we have been experiencing the impacts of climate change in Burkina for several years, and they are getting worse,” Bassiaka Dao, confederation of farmers in Burkina Faso (CPF) president, told IRIN.

Dao said the US$10 billion that rich nations agreed to provide annually to developing countries to help mitigate climate change effects was insufficient. The UN said at the Copenhagen meetings that $25 billion to $50 billion per year would be required.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87806

IPS – Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says Africa must compromise and be flexible towards other countries, if the U.N. Climate Conference ending on Dec. 18, is to reach an agreement.

Speaking to the press in the Danish capital, Zenawi – ostensibly leading the African front on climate change – said the continent would suffer the most should the world fail to seal a deal.

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IPS – “It’s clear now – we’re not getting a binding deal at the end of tomorrow,” said the president of Friends of the Earth-United States, Erich Pica.

Industrialised nations are burying their heads in the sand and poor countries seem set to be forced to continue bearing the burden of global warming. The demonstrations, flyers, news media and all kinds of pressure to get the Western countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and compensate poor countries with financial resources and technology seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

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IPS – The U.N. Climate Change Conference enters its final week under a cloud of uncertainty as the Africa Group led a protest of the developing world against a perceived attempt to abandon the Kyoto Protocol.

Monday found long lines of delegates and observers waiting to clear security at the Bella Center’s entrance. The now-familiar invitations to this or that side event in the background, you could hear people discussing the fate of precious clauses over the weekend, and murmurings of trouble brewing in the official process.

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IPS – One of the key components of global action on climate change will be measures to adapt to changes that are already unavoidable. The Global Gender and Climate Alliance argues that specific attention be paid to the needs of women.

“With climate change taking away their source of livelihood because of the erratic weather patterns preventing them from farming, women must find another means of making a living,” said Rachel Harris, the media coordinator for GGCA.

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IPS – The world’s poorest countries want two billion dollars from the developed world to replenish the Least Developed Countries Fund.

This is one of the five top priorities put forward by LDCs at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change at a news conference Dec. 11.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49649

IPS – The High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation kicked-off here Tuesday, with U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro calling for practical solutions and reinforced South-South and North-South partnerships to address the demands of our “deeply interconnected world.”

The three-day Conference (Dec. 1-3) is highlighting the growing political and economic ties within the developing world as countries of the South assume leading roles in handling global issues ranging from economic recovery to food security, climate change and pandemic disease.

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IPS – With the flip of a switch, a light comes on or an electric toothbrush revs to power. If service is cut, either for repairs or because of a natural cause, there will most likely be much fuss about how quickly power is restored – to people who live in the developed world.

But ask a person living in any of the least developed countries (LDCs) and they would be glad to have even at least a few hours of electricity each day. Access to reliable energy is a major factor in human welfare, climate change, health care and environmental sustainability.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49401

IPS – Poor women will bear the greatest ‘climate burden’, says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today.

The report emphasises that climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or industrial carbon emissions; it is also an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49323