The
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeThe UNFCCC, which
officially began on March 21, 1994, sets the international framework for
governments to come together to draft policies for reduction of climate change
effects and adaptation to existing threats.
The Kyoto
ProtocolEntering into force on February 16 2005, the Kyoto Protocol to
the UNFCCC is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change,
assigning mandatory emissions reductions to signatory nations.
The
Stern ReviewThe Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change examines
the impacts of climate change and the risks and costs associated with the
issue. The report concludes that, as climate change is already a serious
global threat, “the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the
economic costs of not acting.” The full report, as well as summaries, are
available through this link.
Meeting
the Climate-Change Challenge: Avoiding the Unmanageable & Managing the
UnavoidableThis short powerpoint was presented by its author, Harvard’s
Prof. John Holdren, to the UN CSD-15’s high-level roundtable on climate change
and details the strategies necessary for combining adaptation and
mitigation.
The
Guardian’s Climate Change Special SectionThe Guardian’s link provides
access to an interesting collection of articles on the science of climate
change, carbon markets’ popularity, advocacy, activism, and various special
reports on case studies.
The Pew
Center on Global Climate ChangeThe Pew Center’s website provides an
enormous amount of information at the regional, national, and international
levels, bringing together business leaders, policy makers, scientists, and
activists to strategize and present facts, data, and cross-sectoral policy
initiatives. Want to know what your state is doing about climate change?
Read legislation and commitments here:
http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_states/
Climate CrisisThe official site for
Al Gore’s Academy Award winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, supplies basic
climate change statistics and advocacy information.
United National Environmental Programme
(UNEP)The UNEP’s site on climate change is comprehensive in science and
policy, and it provides useful links like this one:
http://www.grida.no/climate/vitalafrica/english/12.htm which graphs C02
emissions from selected counties.
DFID’s
Climate Change Resource BaseThe British Government’s Department for
International Development provides this link to an excellent selection of
publications called “Key Sheets on Climate Change and Poverty,” including papers
on climate change and pro-poor growth, regional affects of climate change, and
international climate change negotiations.
Climate Action NetworkThis website
links to dozens of climate action networks around the world, on every
continent. Over 365 NGOs are represented here, stimulating government
response to climate change, targeting reduction in emissions, mitigation and
adaptation strategies.
Development
Gateway Environment & DevelopmentStarting with an article called
“Rwanda and France: Two Perspectives on Global Warming,” this site
provides a range of articles under its “key issues” section for climate change,
as well and environment and development.
Gender & Climate
ChangeThis website, although a few years outdated, provides essential
background information for the link between gender and climate change issues,
including mitigation, adaptation, and critical research.
Mainstreaming
Gender into the Climate Change Regime (2004)
Gender
Perspectives on the Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and
Desertification (2004)
From Beijing to
Kyoto: Gendering the International Climate Change Negotiation Process
(2003)
A Critical
Look at Gender and Energy Mainstreaming in Africa: a draft paper, by Njeri
Wamukonya (2002)
Gender
and Climate Change (2002)
Jyoti Parikh and Fatma Denton summarize a COP-8
side event they held called Engendering the Climate Debate: Vulnerability,
adaptation, mitigation and financial mechanisms.
IUCN:
Gender Aspects of Climate Change (2007)
This document details the ways in
which climate change affects women, how women are still under-represented in
decision-making and policy-making for adaptation and mitigation, and how a
gender bias exists in carbon emissions and emissions calculations.
Mainstreaming
gender perspectives in environmental management and mitigation of natural
disasters (UN, 17 Jan 2002)
This paper discusses numerous aspects of
women’s involvement and gender mainstreaming in adaptation and mitigation
strategies, risk assessments, and and emergency response and
management.
Instraw:
Disaster Management and MitigationThe UN International Research and
Training Institute for the Advancement of Women provides gender mainstreaming
guidelines and strategies for dealing with environmental risks like climate
change.
Climate
Change, Gender and Poverty—Academic Babble or Realpolitik? (Fatma Denton,
ENDA, 14 Oct 2001)
Fatma Denton of ENDA addresses gender in mitigation and
adaptation policy-making, as well as women’s roles in vulnerable sectors like
forestry and fisheries.
Is the gender
dimension of the climate debate forgotten? (ENDA/ IRADe, 29 October
2006)
This link provides access to a summary of the COP8 session on climate
change and gender, including recommendations, participants, and key statements
from Jyoti Parikh and Fatma Denton, experts in the field.
Is climate change a gender issue?
(AWID, 2005)
This article highlights the severity of climate change
recognized by the global scientific community but ignored by international
policymakers, and reports on the Inuit community’s vulnerability to climate
change effects already occurring.
Oxfam:
Climate ChangeOxfam’s website provides excellent “key facts” and other
information related to climate change issues around the world, as well as links
to publications addressing gender, development, and climate change.
Canadian
International Development Agency: Gender Equality and Climate
Change: Why consider gender equality when taking action on climate
change?This short paper addresses such essential issues as food
security, water resources, and the affects of climate change on human
health.
The White House: Energy
Security for the 21st CenturyThis is the U.S. government’s link to
energy policies, standards, and priorities.
Capitol
Watch: Congress and Climate ChangeFrom the Foreign Policy
Association’s website, this article by Daniel Widome discusses the current bills
in Congress addressing climate change.
The U.S. EPA Guide to Climate
ChangeThe Environmental Protection Agency’s site not only provides basic
facts and policy overviews, but it also connects directly to links to find
Energy Star products, to personal emissions calculators, “what you can do”
advice, and other resources.
Also see: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/
for the informational site geared toward children.
Bush
Policy vs. Kyoto: Is the US Intensity Target Equivalent to Reductions by
Countries in the Kyoto Protocol?This article from the Pew Climate Center
examines different policies for targeting a reduction in emissions, specifically
drawing attention to the differences between US policies and signatories to the
Kyoto Protocol.
U.S.
Carbon Emissions Falls in 2006 (MSNBC, 23 May 2007)
“Bush hails it as
progress, energy department cites mild winter.”
U.S.
Approach to Climate Change (26 October 2006)
This powerpoint by the US
Department of Energy’s Dr. Robert C. Marlay outlines the tax incentives,
involvement of federal agencies, and money spent on science R&D for climate
technologies.
Struggling
to Save the Planet: A New Proposal on Combating Climate Change (The
Economist, 31 May 2007)
Having formally withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol,
the U.S. is now beginning to acknowledge that its strategy to address climate
change has failed. This article discusses a new plan.
The
Impact of Climate Change in the Rest of the WorldThis link provides a
quick summary of key points. Climate change will be most urgently
threatening for developing communities.
Adapting to
Climate Change in Developing Countries (October 2006)
The U.K.’s
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology presents a succinct newsletter
covering the most pressing issues for least developed countries as they adapt to
climate changes.
The Carbon Folly
(Newsweek, 12 March 2007)
A critical look at carbon-trading, the market-based
approach to reducing global warming.
Greening
the Big Apple (The Economist, 26 April 2007)
Sustainable New York
City: Mayor Bloomberg announces plans to address climate change in the
city.
How
to cool the world (The Economist, 10 May 2007)
Is the world ready to tax
carbon?
No Future:
Democracy in the age of neoliberal speed (Re-Public: Re-imagining
Democracy, May 2007)
This article by Robert Hassan takes a critical look at
the way climate change and other issues fit (or don’t fit) into the neoliberal
obsession with speed, the present (as opposed to the future), and
markets.
Sea No Evil:
Americans should open their eyes to the reality of climate change (The
Nation, 5 February 2007)
Kari Manlove, from Washington State, discusses how
climate change is affecting not just developing countries, but U.S.
communities. Insurance companies have been dropping coverage in vulnerable
areas, and yet 13% of Americans says they’ve never heard of global
warming.
Climate
Politics (Open Democracy)
This link provides access to a collection of
fascinating articles from “high-level political players and grassroots
activists” concerned with climate change (as well as sections on Science &
Environment, Creative Energy, and Zero Carbon City.)
Globalisation’s
Broken Promise: Globalisation’s gender side by Roselynn Musa, 23
May 2007
Not directly about climate change but clearly relevant, Musa
discusses the inequality inherent in market-based, “open trade” strategies and
ideologies of
globalization.)