West India drought fuels migration to cities

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:31 GMT

Source: Alertnet // Darryl D'Monte

Women agricultural labourers stand in a turmeric field at the end of a work day outside Sangli, about 380km (236 miles) south of Mumbai, Dec, 5, 2011. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

By Darryl D'Monte

MUMBAI (AlertNet) - Worsening drought in western India is making it harder for men to find brides and pushing poor rural families to seek work in cities, as government policies to help them deal with crop failure and financial pressures fall short.

More than a dozen young men in a village in Khatav sub-district in Satara, in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, have been waiting in vain for brides for more than two years, since the dry spell began, the Daily New and Analysis(DNA) newspaper reported in May.

“No families in and around our village are ready to give their daughters to our boys,” farmer’s wife Sakubai Yadav, 45, told the DNA. Two other 26-year-old men have been biding their time for four years and have started drinking out of frustration, the paper said.

As well as doing household chores, young brides are expected to fetch water from wells up to 3 km away in the searing heat – a burden some don’t want to take on. And in order to get by after poor harvests, some wives have had to join the federal government’s rural employment guarantee scheme, which provides villagers with up to 100 days’ work a year.

Other families have left their villages, along with their cattle, to look for work in cities including Mumbai, the state capital, less than 300 km away. Once there, many become slum dwellers.

Some 6,000 people out of Maan sub-district’s population of 200,000 have permanently migrated to urban areas in the past year, according to Yogendra Katiyare, the top local government official. Last year’s census shows that the inhabitants of Aundh village, for example, dropped to 7,500 from 9,000 a decade ago.

Climate factors appear to be playing a growing part in this migration. The increasingly erratic nature of rainfall in the Khatav and Maan areas of Satara can be linked to climate change, according to Ramachandra Sable, former head of the meteorology department at Rahuri Agricultural University in eastern Maharashtra.

Sable told AlertNet that monsoon patterns are changing, leading to depletion of groundwater levels. Valsa Nair Singh, Maharashtra’s environment secretary, confirmed that the water level in Satara’s aquifers has dropped.

Khatav and Maan are located in the shadow of the Mahabaleshwar hills, which receive annual rainfall of around 6,000 mm - but the water does not flow eastwards. Analysing the last three decades of rain in these areas, Sable found that 60 percent of years were deficient, 20 percent normal and only 20 percent above average.

Rakesh Kumar of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in Mumbai, who is reviewing data for the next assessment report of the U.N. climate panel, told AlertNet that the severity and frequency of drought in the area is increasing due to climate change. A rise in the summer temperature is reducing moisture retention in the soil, he observed.

IRRIGATION MISMANAGED

The impacts of climate shifts have been compounded by political corruption and bureaucratic indifference, according to Delhi-based Sunita Narain, the editor ofDown to Earth magazine. She says funds earmarked for drought relief have not been used efficiently and irrigation schemes are being mismanaged.

“Reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India speak about scandalous ways in which dams are built but canals are not, and about cost escalations so high that projects become unviable and are never completed,” Narain wrote in a May 31 editorial.

The opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in Maharashtra says the state has spent close to Rs. 66,000 crores ($12 billion) on irrigation schemes in the last 10 years. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan admitted last month that, despite this expenditure, only a 0.1 percent increase in land under irrigation was achieved in the decade, according to Infrawindow.com, a construction news website.

Yet 40 percent of the state’s irrigation capacity – the potential of projects to deliver water - lies unused, according to Maharashtra’s annual economic survey.

Maharashtra is the only state in India that provides water to industry in preference to agriculture, Narain asserts, with the economic survey noting that only half of storage capacity is used for farming.

And Maharashtra grows two-thirds of India’s sugar cane - a crop that guzzles water in a region where some women spend three hours a day fetching pails of water for family needs.

Sugar is big politics in the region, with leaders heading co-operatives that get bank loans at reduced rates, as well as other favours. The Economic Timesreported last month that the state BJP leader, Gopinath Munde, is now the region’s main sugar baron, with his company believed to own some 25 mills.

THIRSTY CITIES

Home to the huge cities of Mumbai and Pune, Maharashtra is more urbanised than most other Indian states, and the demand of big residential areas for water is huge and growing.

The Mumbai Municipal Corporation has just announced the completion of a new dam in the hinterland, which will deliver 455 million litres of water per day to 12.5 million inhabitants. Some of the water was previously being used by farmers and other rural dwellers.

The current state of affairs seems ironic, given that Maharashtra was the first Indian state to initiate drought relief back in 1972.

It started an employment guarantee scheme providing cash and food to people in affected areas. The initiative won international accolades, including from the World Bank, but later languished due to official apathy, according to Mick Moore and Vishal Jadhav, writing in the Journal of Development Studies in 2006.

In the early days, work was carried out on big irrigation projects with politicians’ backing. But when the focus shifted to smaller schemes, politicians lost interest, the researchers said.

A prize-winning investigative journalist, P. Sainath, published a best-seller in the early 1990s, entitled Everybody Loves a Good Drought, based on his visits to India’s 10 poorest districts. The title chapter explored how bureaucrats and politicians used disaster situations to clamour for more funds from the federal government, only to siphon off some of the money for themselves - a situation that Sainath maintains continues today.

SUICIDES

Some villagers are also bitter that local wind farm operators are reaping profits while they are struggling to cope with drought. Satara district has 1,100 wind turbines, accounting for 1,600 megawatts (MW) of power capacity.

Activist Bharat Patankar has led a movement since 2003 which has forced the government to pay land owners a fee of Rs 15,000 ($81) per year for every MW of capacity installed on their land.

But rural folk say government initiatives intended to help them get through drought periods are simply not enough. Young men from Khatav and Maan are finding the guaranteed employment daily wage of Rs 131 ($2.40) too little, and are heading to the cities.

People in eastern Maharashtra are also suffering, as the region suffers from near-perennial drought. The cotton fields of Vidarbha, for example, have witnessed a spate of farmer suicides due to the pressure of large loans they can’t repay.

The Hindu newspaper reported last October that farm suicides in Maharashtra had topped 50,000 between 1995 and 2010, with the yearly average increasing this century, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Darryl D’Monte, former editor of the Times of India in Mumbai, heads the Forum of Environmental Journalists of India and is the founding president of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists. He is based in Mumbai.

Link to the source:- http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/west-india-drought-fuels-migration-to-cities/

Rio+20: What does the Earth Summit’s outcome mean for climate change?

25 June 2012

By John Parnell

With Rio+20 over, we’re left to pick through the bones of the final outcome and asses what impact it might have, if any, on global attempts to reduce and react to the consequences of climate change.

The Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, is a separate process from the UN’s long-running climate change talks (overseen by the UNFCCC) that were borne out of the original Earth Summit in Rio back in 1992.

World leaders at Rio applaud after finishing their portrait session. (Source: Flickr/UN_Photo_Conference)

The crossover between the objectives of the two, is obvious and the opportunities for progress enormous.

However, the outcome document has been criticized for failing to adequately address a number of development issues, particularly gender equality and the swift establishment of sustainable development goals, something the UK’s own international development department was keen on.

On climate change, there are a number of direct and indirect references that could boost efforts to cut emissions and increase resilience. Today, we’ll look at what is in the document (which can be viewed in full at the bottom of this page) and the potential impact for climate issues. Tomorrow, we’ll review what’s missing, what topics fell off the agenda and which issues championed heavily before the event, didn’t make the cut.

“We acknowledge that climate change is a cross-cutting and persistent crisis and express our concern that the scale and gravity of the negative impacts of climate change affect all countries and undermine the ability of all countries in particular, developing countries, to achieve sustainable development and the MDGs and threaten the viability and survival of nations.” Paragraph 25

This paragraph is not as bland as it looks.

The “viability and survival of nations” phrase is a victory for small island nations, many of whom have already begun migrations as a result of climate change. With increased sea level and more powerful storm surges, a devastating combination of coastal erosion and contamination of ground water supplies by seawater are making islands uninhabitable.

This acknowledgement should secure them special focus in the ongoing sustainable development talks. Four later paragraphs (178-181) build on this.

Ocean protection, particularly with relation to small island states such as Kiribati, is among the strongest components of the document. (Source: Rafael Avila Coya)

“We recognize that improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, cleaner and energy-efficient technologies are important for sustainable development, including in addressing climate change. We also recognize the need for energy efficiency measures in urban planning, buildings, and transportation, and in the production of goods and services and in the design of products. We also recognize the importance of promoting incentives in favour of, and removing disincentives to, energy efficiency and the diversification of the energy mix, including promoting research and development in all countries, including developing countries.” Paragraph 128

Several encouraging lines here but (and this is a running theme), the language is not strong enough.

“Recognizing that energy efficiency is important to combating climate change.” Surely that was not a point for debate?

The mention for transportation and product design is also fresh and will cut emissions and other resource depletion directly and indirectly if action on the ground results from the “recognition”.

The final line, about supporting efficiency measures in developing nations is better, but celebrations will be on pause until some money is on the table.

“We underline the importance of considering disaster risk reduction, resilience and climate risks in urban planning. We recognize the efforts of cities to balance development with rural regions.” Paragraph 135

For many, particularly those living on floodplains in the developing world, this is great to see. But again, what does recognize mean? You might recognize that your house is on fire, it’s what you do about it that’s key.

Much of the action on this sector could be carried out directly through the UNFCCC’s adaptation work, handled separately through its own talks.

“We call for support to initiatives that address ocean acidification and the impacts of climate change on marine and coastal ecosystems and resources.” Paragraph 166

Ocean-related paragraphs are among the strongest worded in the outcome document. Ocean acidification has been largely ignored in favour of sea level rise when it comes to the oceans and climate change. A specific reference to “calling for support” is effectively the rattle of a collection tin for research work looking to find solutions to this challenge.

A later paragraph (176) supports international protection specifically for coral reefs not just from acidification but also from damaging fishing practices and pollution. It also places mangrove conservation at the heart of the possible solutions.

Restoring mangroves has proven to be a successful way to reduce coastal erosion and to create jobs that rely on that particular ecosystem.

When you reach paragraphs 190 onwards, you find the designated climate change section. So will nations state their intention to cut greenhouse gas emissions (via the UNFCCC process of course)? No, but they do “express profound alarm that emissions…continue to rise globally”.

There is more grave concern over the so-called emissions gap and Parties to the UNFCCC urged to fulfill their commitments.

Most tellingly, the concept of Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), missing from the last climate change text, has re-appeared.

The Indian delegation pushed hard for the inclusion of CBDR. (Source: Flickr/UN_photo_conference)

In summary, the Rio+20 outcome moves climate action no further forward but it does still have a net positive benefit.

The relatively strong words on ocean protection will boost carbon sequestration in the seas and vulnerable nations can point to the document should they not receive enhanced protections and assistance.

The true effects of the document are impossible to predict as the wording places practically no pressure on politicians to do anything.

It does however, prove that they are aware not only of the problems, but of many of the solutions. They can’t use ignorance as a reason for inaction any longer.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at what’s missing from the document, and the resulting implications for climate change.

The full document:

The Future We Want – Final Document

Rio’s call to action on disaster risk reduction

Photo credit

By Dizery Salim

RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 June 2012 - The largest UN summit ever organized closes today with an urgent worldwide call for accelerated implementation of the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction agreed by all UN member States seven years ago.

Against a backdrop of 1.3 million deaths, 4.4 billion people affected and $2 trillion in economic losses from disasters since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Heads of State and high-level representatives urged States, international financial institutions, international organizations and civil society "to accelerate implementation" of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.

"We call for disaster risk reduction and building of resilience to disasters to be addressed with a renewed sense of urgency in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and, as appropriate, to be integrated into policies, plans, programmes, and budgets at all levels and considered within relevant future frameworks," they declared in the outcome document -- the Future We Want -- of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

They also noted with grave concern the significant gap between mitigation pledges in terms of global annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and "aggregate emission pathways consistent with having a likely chance of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C or 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels."

Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative for Disaster Reduction, who is in Rio de Janeiro for the summit, commended the declaration's focus on future risk levels. "The potential for disaster is always rising. It's going to be hard to maintain the same level of safety, especially with overpopulation and land pressure, climate change, permafrost melting and extreme weather.

"The declaration contains a section on disaster risk reduction that sets a firm foundation for discussions on a post-2015 framework to continue guiding nations after the Hyogo Framework expires three years from now.

"So far in our initial consultations, people tell us we have to focus on the integration of climate adaptation and risk reduction. It's a matter of having supportive policies in place, strengthening institutional competencies and tapping enough resources to make things happen. Also, people told us there weren't enough instruments to help local leaders manage urban risk. This is important because a lot of development work is done in urban areas," said Ms. Wahlström, who is also head of the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR.

Since 2005, 193 member States have endorsed the Hyogo Framework's five priorities, with 133 governments actively reporting on implementation. More than 1,000 cities around the world have committed to reducing risk at the local level to complement national-level efforts, using role model cities and peer-to-peer learning to accelerate progress as members of UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" Campaign. Some 81 countries have set up National Platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction -- interdisciplinary bodies within nations charged with monitoring in-country progress on reducing risk.

Governments are also stressing the importance of creating stronger links between disaster risk reduction, recovery and long-term development planning.

There is also a demand for more "coordinated and comprehensive strategies" that integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation considerations into public and private investment, decision making and planning of humanitarian and development actions to reduce risk, to increase resilience and provide a smoother transition between relief, recovery and development.

The text has governments calling on a variety of actors -- from government to civil society, the scientific community, academia and the private sector -- to take measures to reduce the exposure of people, infrastructure and other national assets to risk, in line with the Hyogo Framework for Action and any post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction that might follow.

Elsewhere in the text, the importance of disaster risk reduction in urban planning is stressed in a section on sustainable cities and human settlements.

A section on capacity building highlights the role of the United Nations to support developing countries and, in particular, least developed countries, to build their capacity to develop "resource-efficient and inclusive economies," by enhancing knowledge and capacity to integrate disaster risk reduction and resilience into development plans.

In the days before the conference, governments, international bodies and civil society organizations held over 40 side events relating to disaster risk reduction, stressing its importance in the areas of health, agriculture, urban living, energy supply, climate change and other areas.

In detial at : www.cdrn.org.in

Source:- http://www.unisdr.org/archive/27335

CLIMATE CHANGE: Cassava key to food security, say scientists

Photo: Ikhlasul Amal/Flickr

Cassava tubers

KAMPALA, 20 June 2012 (IRIN) - An alliance of scientists has been formed to help promote cassava, which has emerged as a "survivor" crop able to thrive in the expected higher temperatures engendered by climate change, a scientific conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, heard.

Some 300 scientists attending the second International Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century (GCP-21-II) announced the alliance, named the Global Cassava Modelling Consortium, which will offer a platform to world cassava researchers to share research information, better understand the physiology of the plant, and explore avenues for protecting it from attacks now that it has even greater importance for the food security of many regions in the world.

The new consortium will initially establish a loose network of scientists sharing and analysing current cassava research and historical research data. As it grows, the network will include the sharing of experiences with cassava farmers across the Tropics, with farms being treated as experimental stations in their own right.

Andy Jarvis, a climate change scientist at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and CGIAR’s [ http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/ ] Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Research Programme, told the conference that a study [ http://www.springerlink.com/content/n36675226277455j ] published in February in the journal Tropical Plant Biology revealed that temperatures in East and West Africa - two major cassava growing regions - are expected to rise by around 1.8 degrees Celsius by 2030, but that the cassava plant will thrive.

"While this [rising temperature] poses problems for the suitability of food staples like bean, banana and sorghum, cassava suitability is likely to be the exception to the rule... Research shows that it will brush off the higher temperatures," he said. "Its potential is tremendously exciting. But now we have to act promptly on the research, as more pests and diseases are manifesting themselves because of climate change."

Cassava is the second most important source of carbohydrates in sub-Saharan African, after maize, and is eaten by around 500 million people every day, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Globally, 280 million tons are produced every year, with half the supply coming from Africa; Uganda produces 5.4 million tons of cassava every year. It is also grown by millions of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Achilles heel

Despite its robust survival in the face of climate change, it has an Achilles heel; it is susceptible to diseases related to global warming like mealy bug, cassava brown-streak disease and cassava mosaic disease.

The cassava study described cassava as "the Rambo root" for its resilience, with authors reporting that the tuber becomes even more productive in hotter temperatures and outperformed potatoes, maize, beans, bananas, millet and sorghum - some of Africa's main food crops - in tests using a combination of 24 climate prediction and crop suitability models.

Read more

EAST AFRICA: Cassava comes in from the cold

KENYA: Maize farmers have rain but lack seeds

UGANDA: Cassava disease threatens food supplies

Cassava in Cote d’Ivoire (film)

The study found that in East Africa cassava could see a 10 percent increase in production if temperatures rise as predicted. In West Africa cassava will hold its own, doing better than potatoes, beans and bananas. Cassava, along with banana and maize, will see a 5 percent increase in suitability in Southern Africa, with only Central Africa registering a I percent decrease in cassava suitability - significantly better than the substantial declines expected in potato and bean, according to Jarvis.

Vitamin-rich varieties

Scientists at the Kampala meeting are also focusing on aspects of cassava breeding - conventional, genetic engineering, the biology of the cassava crop, pests and disease, and nutrition enhancement by moving away from the usual white cassava which is Vitamin A-deficient, a problem in many developing countries. In Uganda for example, Vitamin A and iron deficiencies are major health problems with 32 percent of children under 60 months, and 31 percent of child-bearing mothers, deficient in the vitamin.

"We are planning to introduce nutritious yellow cassava varieties that are rich in Vitamin A and protein," Robert Kawuki, a cassava breeder at a government agro-laboratory facility told IRIN.

Uganda's Minister of State for Agriculture Zerubabel Mijumbi Nyiira told IRIN at the conference venue that the findings would prove useful to farmers in sub-Sahara Africa. "The crop can work as social and economic transformer," he said.

"Cassava used to be a poor person's crop, but now it has the potential of becoming the main food of millions of people while its commercial potential is unimaginable. It is not only for food but it can also be used for industrial starch and used in more than 300 industrial products.

"The world is moving away from using fossil fuel, and therefore fermented cassava starch can produce ethanol used in bio-fuel. But more importantly, its survival in circumstances of this nature makes it one of the most important crops that can make Africa food secure."

vm/kr/cb

Theme (s): Early Warning, Environment, Food Security, Health & Nutrition,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Link to the source:- http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95694/CLIMATE-CHANGE-Cassava-key-to-food-security-say-scientists

San Francisco welcomed as role model and first major US city to join UN campaign

Photo credit

RIO DE JANEIRO, 20 June 2012 - The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the US City of San Francisco as both a role model and the first major US city to join the Making Cities Resilient Campaign which seeks to saves lives and reduce economic losses in member cities.

Speaking today at the Rio+20 Resilient Cities event, Ms. Wahlström said: "We welcome Mayor Edwin Lee on behalf of the people of San Francisco as the 1,000th city to join the UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient campaign. San Francisco's participation further signifies that cities of all sizes and economic strength are prepared to take the lead on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

"We are also particularly pleased to designate San Francisco as a role model city for 'Advancing Resilience through the Whole Community Approach' given the City's efforts to engage its citizens at neighbourhood level in building resilience."



San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee said: "San Francisco has worked tirelessly to increase our overall resilience by investing in our physical infrastructure, such as our water system, and increasing the capacity of our residents and communities to respond to and rapidly recover from disasters."

San Francisco is well-known as the birth place of the UN and as an icon of resilience around the world. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire was one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States causing 2,000 deaths and destroying 28,000 buildings. Today the city has a profound understanding of the nature of risk which arises from its coastal location in an active seismic zone vulnerable to rises in sea-level, drought and heavy rainfall.

--

San Francisco media contact:
Francis Tsang
Chief Deputy Communications Director
Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee
Phone: +415 554 6467
francis.tsang@sfgov.org

• Press Release [PDF 41.16 kB]
• Website: ResilientSF
• Making cities resilient: 'My city is getting ready' world disaster reduction campaign
• 1 million safe schools & hospitals initiative: make a pledge - save a life

Date:

20 Jun 2012

Sources:

• United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UNISDR)

Source :- http://www.unisdr.org/archive/27286

Severe Weather Warnings DATE : JUNE 21, 2012

HEAVY RAINFALL WARNING

HEAVY RAINFALL WOULD OCCUR AT ONE OR TWO PLACES OVER GANGETIC WEST BENGAL AND ORISSA DURING NEXT 48 HOURS.

Link to the source:- http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/severe.htm

UN launches new initiative to assess urban risk

Photo credit

One of the largest malls in the Philippines, SM City North EDSA, is located in Quezon City. In 2011, the city held five consultative workshops with a variety of stakeholders on the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool to assess urban risk.

GENEVA, 18 April 2012 - The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today launched a new initiative to support cities around the world to manage risk following the worst year on record for economic losses from disasters. It also announced today that over 1,000 cities have now joined its "Making Cities Resilient" Campaign.

Campaign Director, Helena Molin Valdés, said: "Cities and towns are on the frontline of disaster risk reduction and bore the brunt of insured economic losses from disasters last year of $380 billion. We are launching a new online Local Government Self-Assessment Tool as part of our global 'Making Cities Resilient' campaign to allow cities to establish baselines, identify planning and investment gaps for risk reduction and climate change adaptation."

She said that the new local government tool would greatly enrich understanding of the challenges ahead as the world starts to think about a new blueprint for disaster risk reduction once the existing plan, the Hyogo Framework for Action, expires in 2015. To date, 133 countries have been reporting at the national level on their progress against the priorities agreed on in the Hyogo Framework. The new local government tool would enable city governments to submit data for national progress reports, for the first time.

The tool has been tested in over 20 cities around the world, including the Philippines city of Quezon, which held five consultative workshops with a variety of stakeholders over the course of 2011. "Critical to this process is the identification of stakeholders that will participate as the ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive rating of the city's performance," said Quezon Mayor, Herbert M. Bautista.

Read the detailed document at : http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23639

CDKN reports will help developing countries plan for climate extremes

New CDKN reports will help developing countries plan for climate extremes

London, 17 April 2012: The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) today launches a three-part series of reports, “Managing Climate Extremes and Disasters: Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report” covering each of the Asia, Africa and Latin American and Caribbean regions.

The reports highlight the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (known as ‘SREX’) for each region, and discuss the implications for society.

The SREX report itself was compiled over two and a half years, involving 220 expert authors, 19 review editors and a four-day approval process by government representatives from around the world. The final 594 page report and its 20 page summary present a rich but sobering account of how different forms of extreme weather events – ranging from high temperatures to heavy rainfall – are likely to become more common by the end of the 21^st century, and are more likely to be caused by climate change.

The CDKN “Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report” series pulls out the state-of-the-art knowledge about current and future impacts of climate extremes, and options for dealing with them.

Sam Bickersteth, CDKN’s Chief Executive, said: “The SREX report is a monumental achievement, but CDKN wanted to help policy-makers, media, businesses and civil society stakeholders to navigate this huge resource. That’s why we produced these regional guides which are easy to use, but preserve the careful scientific language of the original.”

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23640

NASA to carry out research on climate in Bangladesh

NASA to carry out research on climate in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the US space research centre, is keen to carry out research on weather and climate in Bangladesh, the most vulnerable country to climate change.
The visiting chief scientist of Earth Science Division of NASA, Hal Maring, expressed this when she called on the environment and forest minister, Hasan Mahmud, at the latter’s secretariat office in Dhaka Thursday.
Maring said the NASA would conduct the multidisciplinary research on Bangladesh’s environment and climate change under its South and South East Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study Programme.
Over 250 scientists of this region, using the biggest aircraft of NASA, would take part in the research in the Asia-Pacific region’s sky including Bangladesh scheduled to begin from August and September next, the NASA scientist said.
She said information and data, to be collected from this research, would help efficient weather forecasting and agriculture research activities of Bangladesh which at risk of climatic disorders including cyclone, floods and tidal surge.
Lauding the NASA’s research initiative, Hasan said Bangladesh would be benefited enormously as the research on environment and climate change would help exchange information and data among the member states of this region.

Source:- http://newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2012-04-13&nid=7147

Nations call for focus on disaster risk reduction at Rio+20

Photo credit

From left: Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly, meets with Bob Carr, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia prior to attending the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction.

By Denis McClean

NEW YORK, 13 April 2012 - There was a strong call for "the incorporation of disaster risk reduction in any future framework for sustainable development" during the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction yesterday which served as a major curtain raiser for Rio+20.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr, delivered a statement on behalf of the Co-Chairs of the Friends of Disaster Risk Reduction group, Australia, Indonesia, Norway and Peru which were joined by Denmark, Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Philippines, New Zealand, Switzerland and Timor Leste.

"We call for strong and strategic language on disaster risk reduction in the Outcome Document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development -- language that recognizes disaster risk reduction as fundamental to achieving sustainable development and places it at the heart of the future development agenda," the statement read.

Minister Carr said the Group is also urging increased investment "in disaster risk reduction and to build the resilience of the most vulnerable communities. The knowledge and experience of both men and women in those communities must be taken into account".

He said that at the 2009 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN Secretary-General had called "for a target to halve the losses of lives from disasters by 2015, when the terms of the Hyogo Framework for Action ends. For this to happen we ask for all major cities in disaster-prone areas to include and enforce disaster risk reduction measures in their building and land use codes by 2015."

The Group also highlighted the recognition that disaster risk reduction has been given in processes such as the Fourth High-Level Forum on Development Effectiveness, the 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries and the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCC.

Minister Carr congratulated the President of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, for taking the initiative in holding the day-long debate, and concluded: "We hope that Rio+20 will send a strong message that ensures risk and building resilience underpin the framework for achieving sustainable development."

The Group of 77 developing countries and China also said the debate was timely in the context of the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development. It should provide the opportunity for this important topic to be addressed in the sustainable development framework and for the Group of 77 to address its inclusion in the outcome document of the Conference.

In a statement delivered by Permanent Representative of Algeria to the UN, Abdelghani Merabet, the Group insisted on strengthening coordination among UN agencies and governments and encouraging the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery to continue to support the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.

"The Group of 77 and China fully supports the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the Hyogo Declaration and the Hyogo Framework for Action, and is committed to further promoting their principles and objectives as well as its mandate to promote public awareness and commitment, expand networks and partnerships, and improve knowledge about causes of disaster and options for risk reduction."

In a separate statement, the Chinese delegation said: "We hope that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro will reach consensus in this field so as to push forward the international cause of disaster risk reduction."

Willem Rampangilei, Indoensia's Deputy Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare spoke on behalf of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the UN Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction, saying that disaster risk reduction is crucial for disaster-prone countries like Indonesia. It is a top government priority, and Indonesia has shifted the disaster management paradigm from emergency response and recovery to a more comprehensive approach.

The Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Joe Nakano, who spoke at the opening session, drew attention to the fact that although the Great East Japan Earthquake, measuring magnitude 9, was the largest in the country's recorded history, "damages to buildings and structures by the earthquake were rather small thanks to our implementation of some of the world's most advanced seismic technology and building codes."

He declared that "Japan's efforts and experience at disaster risk reduction should be a message to countries and regions all around the world, telling of the value of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and of the necessity of building societies resilient to disasters."

Vice-Minister Nakano reiterated a theme that was much repeated by other contributors throughout the day: "how critical it is to fully consider disaster risk reduction as an integral part of international cooperation. Not only do natural disasters cause serious damage to vulnerable communities but they can even wash away achievements in long-term development in a flash."

He said that Japan will bring the outcome of its "High-Level International Conference on Large-Scale Natural Disasters" in July to the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. "I affirm that Japan is fully committed to contributing to the discussions to establish a post-Hyogo Framework for Action," he said.

The panel discussions on addressing urban risk through public investment and increasing resilience to disasters through climate adaptation and risk reduction were moderated throughout the day by Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Representatives from over 30 countries sought to contribute to the debate and it was a clear sign of the engagement and commitment of the large turn-out that time ran out before all statements could be heard.

Ms. Wahlström summarized some the key threads of the discussions and stressed that the whole day's debate which was transmitted live on the internet would be available in a Chair's summary from the office of the UN General Assembly President as a major contribution to the debate at Rio+20.

On urban risk, she said there were clear messages from the Mayor Augusto Barrera of Quito, and Mr. K. Gokhan Elgin, Director of the urban renewal project for Istanbul, ISMEP, about the importance of priority setting in cities and empowering local governments who were closest to the population.

She said that the afternoon session which brought out the indebtedness of Small Island Developing States offered dramatic evidence of the toll which disasters such as floods and drought, fuelled by climate change, are taking across the world.

In his concluding remarks, General Assembly President, Nassir Abdulazis Al-Nasser, said there is now unprecedented international momentum to reduce disaster risk. The views of Member States had been made clear throughout the day's discussions. Rio+20 must strategically place disaster risk reduction within the development framework. "This is an opportunity that must not be missed," he said.

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(Part 1) Thematic Debate on "Disaster Risk Reduction" - General Assembly




(Part 2) Thematic Debate on "Disaster Risk Reduction" - General Assembly

• UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction (12 April 2012)
• Improving Prevention, Response among Top Priorities, Says Assembly President
• Website: The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO+20)

Source:- http://www.unisdr.org/archive/26222