11 February 2009: The first meeting of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board (EB) in 2009 is taking place in Bonn, Germany, from 11-13 February 2009. At the meeting, in assuming the Chair of the CDM EB, Lex de Jonge underlined the need to scale up and enhance the CDM to release its full potential, underlining that it stimulates investment in green growth in developing countries, engages the private sector in climate change action, and provides countries with some flexibility in meeting their emission reduction targets.
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11 February 2009: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is holding its first Workshop on Aviation and Alternative Fuels in Montreal, Canada, from 10-12 February 2009. The workshop aims to provide a forum to explore potential options, challenges to development and deployment of alternative fuels, as well as initiatives to promote cooperation in this field. The event is designed as a preparatory event to a major conference in November 2009 that will showcase progress and establish a road map for the implementation of alternative fuels for aviation.
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10 February 2009: In a press conference given at UN Headquarters in New York, US, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon provided an overview of his recent travels. He recalled that in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, he spoke on climate change and stressed the need for “global leadership of the highest order” to complete the negotiations in December in Copenhagen. He also mentioned that in Delhi, India, at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, he argued for “green growth” or a Green New Deal that stimulates economic growth and fights climate change by investing in renewable energy. He indicated that he would carry this theme forward at the upcoming G-20 summit meeting in London, UK, on 2 April.
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10 February 2009: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has launched Project Transitions, a multi-stakeholder, multi-output research programme, to determine effective policy responses to the issue of the useful life of energy infrastructure and its related greenhouse gas emissions through micro-scale analysis from an investor's perspective.
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9 February 2009: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the Government of India's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have initiated the establishment of a Platform for Translational Research on Transgenic Crops (PTTC). The Platform will combine the expertise of DBT and ICRISAT and build partnerships for agri-biotechnological research and development of products that meet the needs of agricultural growth and benefit poor farmers by improving their incomes.
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4 February 2009: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released two reports from sessions held in Poznan, Poland, from 1-10 December 2008: the Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol on its resumed sixth session and the Report of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation on its 29th session.
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9 February 2009: In a speech given at the opening of the Fifth General Meeting of the UN and Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and its Associated Institutions, taking place in New York, US, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for the two institutions to step up their collaboration in the face of multiple global crises.
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6 February 2009: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released submissions by the Republic of Korea, detailing the proposals to: establish a Registry of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) of developing countries at the UNFCCC Secretariat as part of the agreed outcome to be adopted at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009; and recognize carbon credit for the verifiable mitigation arising from certain NAMAs as is agreed and contained in paragraph 1(b)(ii) of the Bali Action Plan.
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5 February 2009: After a meeting held on 5 February 2009, in Berlin, Germany, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Heads of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank issued a joint statement on the global economic situation, in which they stress the need for the worldwide fight against climate change to remain “a top priority.”
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28 January 2009: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently approved three projects to support energy efficiency in the Caribbean. The Bahamas will receive US$1.45 million to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of the Environment and support ongoing efforts to reform the country's regulatory, financial and fiscal frameworks, in order to achieve a sustainable energy matrix and to encourage energy efficiency in public, commercial and residential buildings.
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