22 December 2008: The Second UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Conference on Tourism Trends and Outlook for the Asia Pacific took place from 17-19 December 2008, in Guilin, China, and gathered over 100 experts from 25 countries.
18 December 2008: The UN has launched a year-long advocacy campaign to help millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), which represent 1% of the world's population, focusing on mitigating the impact of conflict and natural disasters.
19 December 2008: Among 34 development-related actions put forward by its Second Committee (Economic and Financial), the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a number of resolutions reflecting the breadth of the Committee's agenda, including consideration of the economic ramifications of climate change, and addressing the need for a more equitable international financial system and to bolster developing countries' resilience to financial risk.
15 December 2008: Joel Boutroe, UN Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator for Haiti, delivered a statement on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a seminar on Climate Change and the Environment, which convened in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 13 December 2008. In the statement, Ban noted the urgent need “to come together as a global community” to find common solutions to common problems such as climate change.
15 December 2008: In a message to mark the celebration of the UN Day for South-South Cooperation, observed on 19 December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that the global financial, food and climate change crises call for greater cooperation among developing countries.
3 December 2008: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the UN/OCHA Integrated Resource Information Network (IRIN), has launched a film series titled “Gathering Storm - The humanitarian impact of climate change.”
15 December 2008: Speaking at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on the “follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit: specific meeting focused on development,” taking place in New York, US, on 15 December 2008, UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro warned that the food, fuel and financial crises threaten to undo poverty reduction efforts.
15 December 2008: Speaking at the conference on “Water for Agriculture and Energy in Africa: The Challenges of Climate Change,” taking place in Sirte, Libya, from 15-17 December 2008, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf stressed the importance of water management for food security. During the event, ministers from 53 African countries will consider a “Blue Revolution” programme designed to harness Africa's largely untapped water resources.
10 December 2008: The High-level Regional Policy Dialogue on “The Food-Fuel Crisis and Climate Change – Reshaping the Development Agenda,” jointly organized by the Government of Indonesia and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), convened from 9-10 December 2008, in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting recommended urgent, comprehensive and coordinated action to deal with the food, energy and financial crises, and climate change in the region.
December 2008: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), one of the 16 international research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, has published a report entitled “The Impact of Climate Change and Adaptation on Food Production in Low-Income Countries: Evidence from the Nile Basin, Ethiopia.”
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
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| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
