Guest Article #86: Seizing the Ecosystem Based Adaptation Opportunity: Buffering Climate Change Impacts Now and Beyond COP 18 [viewed]
In a few weeks, delegates from around the world will gather for the next UN climate change talks (COP 18) in Doha, Qatar, to chart the way forward on the modalities of adaptation. The changing climate is happening at an unprecedented rate and impacting a lot of people across the globe.[1] The rising sea levels, longer and more frequent droughts, heightened hurricane activity and floods are increasingly affecting livelihoods.
23 October 2012: Following the recent communication to the general public of a large-scale climate engineering experiment carried out in July 2012, Wendy Watson-Wright, Assistant Director General and Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has issued a response.
22 October 2012: The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted 33 decisions on a range of strategic, substantive, administrative, financial and budgetary issues. On climate change-related issues, the meeting adopted decisions on REDD+ and geo-engineering, and addressed strengthening knowledge on linkages between biodiversity and climate change.
18 October 2012: On its final day, the Rio Conventions Pavilion at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, India, convened to discuss the way towards integrated implementation of the Rio Conventions. 
11 October 2012: The World Risk Report 2012, published by the Alliance Development Works (Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft) in collaboration with the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and The Nature Conservancy, focuses on the theme of environmental degradation and disasters, assessing disaster risk based on information from 173 countries.
9 October 2012: The 64th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) addressed issues related to energy efficiency, ballast water management and ship-recycling. The session also led to the establishment of a new Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in the Saba Bank, in the north-eastern Caribbean area of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
10 October 2012: The Rio Conventions Pavilion at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, India, continued on 10 October 2012, with participants discussing the theme “Natural Solutions: Protected Areas (PAs) Meeting Biodiversity Targets and Adapting to Global Change.”
8 October 2012: Delivering a lecture titled “Is anything being done on climate change?” at the Central Bank of Barbados in Bridgetown, Barbados, Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, conveyed three messages, namely that: climate change is happening; the world is doing something about it, "not enough, but we are walking in the right direction;" and much more can be done at the national level.
8 October 2012: The Third Symposium on "The Ocean in a High CO2 World" brought together experts and decision makers to discuss the impacts of ocean acidification, including socioeconomic consequences, and to consider management and policy implications. Participants reiterated that the primary means of protecting the oceans from acidification is to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, calling for greater global concerted efforts.
8 October 2012: The 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened on 8 October 2012, in Hyderabad, India, directly following the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The two-week meeting will address a series of cross-cutting and ecosystem-related issues, as well as financial, administrative and implementation-related topics.
