28 September 2012: World leaders gathered for the fourth day of the High-level Debate of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) highlighted connections between climate change and sustainable development, and called for urgent action to address climate change.
Convened under the theme “Boosting Intra-African Trade for Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security," the Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture and Trade (CAMAT) 2012 provides a platform for African Ministers of Agriculture and Trade to renew commitments towards, and discuss strategies for, boosting intra-African trade to allow greater food and nutrition security on the continent. CAMAT 2012 will also see the rollout of the ccelerated Agribusiness and Agro-Industries Development Initiative (3ADI) programme, to assist smallholder farmers to attain greater market access.
17 September 2012: Concluding the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), outgoing President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser recalled the Assembly's focus on disaster prevention and response, including local resilience and risk mitigation, and on sustainable development and global prosperity. Also during the plenary meeting, the Assembly took decisions on Africa, the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, and the distribution of seats in the open working group on sustainable development (OWG).
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum 2012 will focus on the question: “Is multilateralism in crisis?” and will provide an opportunity for civil society participants to analyze the state of multilateralism and assess whether it is in crisis, considering both the Doha Round deadlock and WTO activities that work well. The Forum will address the following: formulating new approaches to multilateral trade opening in areas such as trade facilitation; addressing 21st-century issues and identifying areas in need of new regulations; and looking at the role of non-state actors in strengthening the multilateral trading system.
14 September 2012: African Environment Ministers and government ministers, at the conclusion of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), adopted the Arusha Declaration on Africa's Post Rio+20 Strategy for Sustainable Development - a compendium of decisions and programmes aiming to advance the sustainable development agenda in Africa.
5 September 2012: The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held an informal additional session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), on 30 August 2012, in Bangkok, Thailand. The session included a discussion of policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to REDD+.
7 September 2012: The informal additional sessions of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), which convened in Bangkok, Thailand, constituted the last official negotiating sessions before the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UNFCCC, scheduled to take place at the end of 2012, in Doha, Qatar.
4 September 2012: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE Watercourses Convention), signed in 1992 in Helsinki, returned to that city to celebrate its 20th anniversary. A two-day meeting was held to reflect on the accomplishments of the Convention and contemplate its future as it is readied to allow accession to the Convention by UN members outside the UNECE.
3 September 2012: The Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) has decided to recommend that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) should remain as the interim secretariat for the Adaptation Fund Board. The intersessional decisions of the Adaptation Fund Board are based on a Performance Review of the Secretariat and Trustee of the AFB.
30 August 2012: The 43rd Pacific Islands Forum convened in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, from 28-30 August 2012, under the theme of “Large Oceans Island States – the Pacific Challenge.” Issues discussed at the meeting included the outcomes of the recent UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), the Oceanscape initiative, climate change, and radioactive contaminants in the Marshall Islands. The 43rd PIF Communique includes the key commitments of Pacific Leaders.
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
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| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
