The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the
World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) launched a new facts and figures report
on glaciers and ice caps during a side event on 1 September 2008, in Geneva,
Switzerland, during the 29th plenary session of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Global Glacier Changes: Facts and Figures”
presents recent fluctuations of glaciers and ice caps and underlines an overall
trend of glaciers' retreat. Wilfried Haeberli, Director of WGMS, noted that
glaciers are unique demonstration objects of global climate change.
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2 September 2008: The Third High Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness is taking place from 2-4 September 2008, in Accra, Ghana. Over
100 high-level country representatives, as well as heads of bilateral and
multilateral development agencies, donor organizations, and civil society
organizations, will discuss ways to increase the transparency of aid and make
it more results-oriented.
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31 August 2008: Speaking on the occasion of the twentieth
anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the
opening of its twenty-ninth Plenary session, Roberto Acosta, Coordinator, UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on behalf of Yvo de Boer,
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, underlined the IPCC's role in global climate change
policies and the need for public understanding of climate change to
significantly strengthen international action to tackle this challenge and reach
an ambitious response in Copenhagen at the UN climate change meeting in
December 2009.
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31 August 2008: In a press conference given on the occasion
of the twentieth anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) in Geneva, Switzerland, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated
the IPCC for its accomplishments and for removing any doubt that climate change
was happening with its Fourth Assessment Report.
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September 2008: The sixth quarterly International Polar Day,
which will be celebrated on 24 September 2008, will address how climate change
and renewed exploitation present urgent challenges to Arctic people, including
by examining the health impacts of climate change on the Arctic residents and
the focus of monitoring programmes of the polar environment on climate change.
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September 2008: The International Congress on ‘Anthropogenic
Impacts on the Marine Environment' is scheduled to take place in Ismal,
Algeria, from 27-29 October 2008.
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26 August 2008: The UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) has released a booklet that seeks to raise awareness of energy subsidies and their impact.
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27 August 2008: The third session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term
Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) and the first part of the
sixth session of the Ad Hoc Working
Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol to
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place from 21-27
August 2008, in Accra, Ghana.
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28 August 2008: In this report, subtitled “Health equity
through action on the social determinants of health,” the World Health
Organization's (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health calls for
closing the health gap in a generation and outlines the requirements for developing
solutions to the inequities between and within countries.
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27 August 2008: This toolkit is aimed at UN Country Teams
and other development agents, to provide guidance on how to engage indigenous
peoples and include their perspectives in development processes.
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