http://www.dwf.org/index.php en guillaume.chantry@dwf.org Copyright 2011 2011-03-16T00:30:47+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/vfl_2011_viet_nam_case_study_quang_tho_commune/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/vfl_2011_viet_nam_case_study_quang_tho_commune/#When:23:30:47Z 2011-03-15T23:30:47+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/crise_ivoirienne_le_burkina_tente_damortir_le_choc_dwf_projet_construction_/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/crise_ivoirienne_le_burkina_tente_damortir_le_choc_dwf_projet_construction_/#When:09:07:40Z Comme il fallait s’y attendre les effets de la crise n’ont pas tardé à se ressentir sur la vie quotidienne des Burkinabè. La Côte d’Ivoire est le premier partenaire économique du Burkina Faso en Afrique. Plusieurs produits de grande consommation du Burkina proviennent des unités industrielles ivoiriennes ou transitent par le port international d’Abidjan. Depuis le début de la crise post électorale tout a changé. Les échanges commerciaux entre le Burkina et la Côte d’Ivoire ont considérablement diminué depuis le début de la crise. Les consommateurs le constatent chez les commerçants. Les prix de certains ont grimpé sur le marché. Dans les petites boutiques de quartiers, le litre d’huile alimentaire est passé de 700 à 1000f CFA. Le sac de riz est passé de 13 000 à 19 000f chez certains commerçants. Les prix d’autres produits tels que la farine de blé, les pattes alimentaires, le savon, les matériaux de construction, les plastiques ont aussi connu une hausse depuis que les transporteurs ont arrêté d’aller en Côte d’Ivoire. Cette hausse est liée d’abord aux difficultés de transport. Le trafic ferroviaire sur lequel compte le Burkina pour ses importations n’est plus normal. Les camions poids lourds burkinabè ne veulent pas prendre de risque en empruntant ce corridor. “Officiellement la frontière entre le Burkina et la Cote D’ivoire n’est pas fermée. Mais nos camions ne peuvent pas aller au delà de la zone rebelle. La sécurité n’y est pas garantie. Les camions burkinabè sont mal vus dans cette partie. Personne ne veut y aller” explique un transporteur. Mais ce n’est pas tout. Les forces nouvelles ont décidé dans leur stratégie d’instaurer un blocus pour asphyxier la partie sous contrôle de Laurent Gbagbo. Aucun camion ne peut donc ravitailler cette partie de la Côte d’Ivoire. Certains transporteurs ont même eu des propositions alléchantes pour aller transporter des marchandises bloqués à Abidjan mais rares sont ceux qui acceptent prendre ce risque. “Certains commerçants ont toujours leurs marchandises bloqués à Abidjan et ils nous font même de bonnes propositions sur le prix mais c’est difficile” confie ce transporteur. Le problème de transport n’est malheureusement pas la seule difficulté d’approvisionnement du marché burkinabè en produits ivoiriens. La plupart des entreprises ivoiriennes sont aujourd’hui en difficulté. Celles qui arrivent à tenir malgré la crise ont été obligées de revoir leur production à la baisse faute de matières premières mais aussi en raison des tensions de trésorerie. Elles ne peuvent plus satisfaire le marché ivoirien. Une sous production qui provoque une raréfaction de certains produits ivoiriens sur le marché burkinabè. La solution alternative des importateurs Malgré tout, pour le moment il n y a pas de rupture en produits de première nécessité au Burkina du fait de la crise en Côte d’Ivoire. Les importateurs burkinabè ont tout de suite trouvé des produits de remplacement aux produits provenant des unités industrielles ivoiriennes selon le directeur général des douanes. Désormais, le port de Lomé et celui de Tema sont les principaux ports utilisés par les importateurs burkinabè. Ces solutions alternatives ne sont pas spontanées. C’est la crise de 2002 qui aurait servi de leçon aux importateurs Burkinabè. “On a beaucoup souffert de la crise en 2002 au Burkina. On a compris qu’il ne faut pas compter sur un seul corridor. Les importateurs ont diversifié leurs sources. Ce qui fait que les effets de la crise actuelle ne sont pas bien ressentis dans la vie des Burkinabè comme ce fut le cas en 2002” explique le directeur général des douanes. Ousmane Guiro est formel. La présente crise ne peut bloquer l’économie du Burkina. Les commerçants burkinabè ont trouvé une solution alternative. Ils se sont tournés vers le Ghana et le Togo pour les importations. Mais cela à un coût supplémentaire sur les prix des produits. Certains petits commerçants confrontés chaque jour à cette hausse font supporter les coûts supplémentaires au consommateur?: “la plupart des produits ont connu une hausse. Nos fournisseurs nous expliquent qu’ils ne peuvent pas nous vendre au même prix parce que les coûts de transport ont augmenté. Nous n’avons pas d’autre choix que de tenir compte des nouveaux prix pour vendre.” Nous explique un commerçant. Le Burkina était dépendant du train dans ses importations. Le parc de camions poids lourds ne suffit pas à répondre aux besoins. Ce sont les camions ghanéens qui approvisionnaient en partie le Burkina. Aujourd’hui, ces camions ont trouvé mieux ailleurs avec la crise. Le cacao ivoirien ne peut plus sortir par le port d’Abidjan. L’Union européenne a interdit l’accostage aux ports de Côte d’Ivoire. Le cacao passe désormais par les ports du Ghana. Et ce sont les camions ghanéens qui transportent ce cacao. Ce qui crée des difficultés pour certains importateurs burkinabè qui comptaient jusque là sur les camions ghanéens pour transporter leurs marchandises au Burkina. Une partie du parc burkinabè existant ravitaille aussi la zone rebelle de la Côte d’Ivoire. En 2002 le Burkina a perdu plusieurs milliards en recettes du fait de la crise, obligeant le gouvernement à revoir le budget national. Cette fois ci, le directeur général des douanes rassure que la crise ivoirienne n’entrainera pas trop de pertes en recettes au niveau du Burkina. Les chiffres ne donnent pas de grands écarts entre l’an passé à la même période et cette année, sur le corridor de la Cote d’Ivoire. Les bureaux de Niangoloko, de Bobo-Dioulasso et de Ouaga gare ont même connu une légère hausse en recettes par rapport à l’an passé selon le premier responsable des douanes. Des pertes en exportation Le Burkina ne perd pas uniquement en importation. La Côte d’Ivoire est le principal client du Burkina sur certains produits tels que le bétail, les boissons, le tabac. Le Burkina utilise beaucoup le train dans ses exportations de coton à partir du port d’Abidjan. Cela n’est plus possible avec la crise. Ce sont les autres corridors que la Sofitex utilise pour acheminer le coton. Ce qui revient plus cher à supporter comme charge. Le directeur général de la Sofitex soutient que l’utilisation des corridors autres qu’Abidjan va entrainer un surcoût de 25f par kilogramme de fibre de coton. C’est surtout par les ports de Tema et de Lomé que transite le coton burkinabè. Ces ports sont aujourd’hui encombrés. Mais ce n’est pas seulement le Burkina qui a besoin de la Côte d’Ivoire. Autant les pays de l’hinterland ont besoin de la Côte d’Ivoire, autant la Côte d’Ivoire a besoin de ces pays. En 2008, la part de recettes ivoiriennes provenant des transactions avec l’UEMOA représentait 13% selon les chiffres de la BECEAO. Le Burkina est le premier client de la Côte d’Ivoire au sein de l’UEMOA avec près de 30% des exportations vers les autres pays de la communauté. Le Burkina est aussi, l’un des principaux fournisseurs de la Côte d’Ivoire. Moussa Zongo 2011-03-14T09:07:40+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/viet_nam_struggling_to_cope_with_rising_prices/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/viet_nam_struggling_to_cope_with_rising_prices/#When:05:59:26Z HO CHI MINH CITY, 1 March 2011 (IRIN) - Vietnam’s inflation rate is among Southeast Asia’s highest and its population is struggling to keep up with sharp increases in food, fuel and electricity prices. On 1 March the government increased electricity prices by a record 15 percent to an average 1,242 dong (US 6 cents) per kilowatt per hour. The week before, petrol prices were raised by 18 percent to 19,300 dong (93 cents) per litre. In Vietnam, inflation has increased every month since August 2010, reaching 12.2 percent in January. “Things are getting really uncertain,” said Nguyen Bich Hanh, 25, a public school teacher who lives on the outskirts of the capital, Ho Chi Minh City. “We are struggling to pay for electricity, and food [prices are] getting extreme.” In the past two months, Nguyen said the price of high-quality rice, for example, had increased by almost one-third to 22,000 dong ($1.13) per kilogramme. She earns $150 a month and spends most of it on food and transportation for her family of five. The World Bank ranks Vietnam as a lower middle-income country. Still, worries about poverty run deep in a country where 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas and most of the workforce is agricultural. Half the population lives on less than $2 a day, and many could slide into poverty because of economic shocks and natural disasters, according to AusAID, the Australian government’s aid agency. Nguyen saves money by turning off the electricity at home at all times, and increasingly, by skipping meals. “Fewer kids are coming to school because they need to help their families,” she said. Coping Sudden price fluctuations are forcing Vietnam’s poorest to find quick and creative ways of coping, said Ben Kerkvliet, a Vietnam scholar at the Canberra-based Australian National University. “Many rural households in Vietnam have small gardens, small fish ponds or other aqua-raising opportunities, chickens or ducks… that help to feed their families,” he told IRIN. “In hard times, these sources of food become even more important. “Youngsters in the household may go to school without school supplies. They may have to quit school altogether,” he added. So far, Vietnam has performed well in enrolling students in primary school and keeping them there. In 2009, net enrolment in primary school was 97 percent and 88.5 percent of children who enter primary school complete at least five years, according to the UN office in Vietnam. But should inflation increase sharply beyond current levels, said Kerkvliet, general stability could slide. “Should shortages of key commodities like rice and wheat become extreme, villagers are likely to protest in various parts of the country,” he said. “At present levels of inflation, the likely political change will be policies aimed at addressing the problems.” This year, the government hopes to limit inflation to 7 percent, compared with 11.75 percent last year. For Nguyen, poverty is more pressing than numbers on paper. “They say our country is becoming richer,” she said, “but this does not matter if regular people cannot afford anything.” 2011-03-01T05:59:26+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/dwf_safe_housing_reconstruction_in_viet_nam_-_video/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/dwf_safe_housing_reconstruction_in_viet_nam_-_video/#When:08:23:32Z See : 2011-02-21T08:23:32+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/increased_flood_risk_linked_to_global_warming/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/increased_flood_risk_linked_to_global_warming/#When:01:52:22Z Likelihood of extreme rainfall may have been doubled by rising greenhouse-gas levels. NATURE N°470 Climate change may be hitting home. Rises in global average temperature are remote from most people’s experience, but two studies in this week’s Nature1,2 conclude that climate warming is already causing extreme weather events that affect the lives of millions. The research directly links rising greenhouse-gas levels with the growing intensity of rain and snow in the Northern Hemisphere, and the increased risk of flooding in the United Kingdom. Insurers will take note, as will those developing policies for adapting to climate change. “This has immense importance not just as a further justification for emissions reduction, but also for adaptation planning,” says Michael Oppenheimer, a climate-policy researcher at Princeton University in New Jersey, who was not involved in the studies. There is no doubt that humans are altering the climate, but the implications for regional weather are less clear. No computer simulation can conclusively attribute a given snowstorm or flood to global warming. But with a combination of climate models, weather observations and a good dose of probability theory, scientists may be able to determine how climate warming changes the odds. An earlier study3, for example, found that global warming has at least doubled the likelihood of extreme events such as the 2003 European heatwave. More-localized weather extremes have been harder to attribute to climate change until now. “Climate models have improved a lot since ten years ago, when we basically couldn’t say anything about rainfall,” says Gabriele Hegerl, a climate researcher at the University of Edinburgh, UK. In the first of the latest studies1, Hegerl and her colleagues compared data from weather stations in the Northern Hemisphere with precipitation simulations from eight climate models (see page 378). “We can now say with some confidence that the increased rainfall intensity in the latter half of the twentieth century cannot be explained by our estimates of internal climate variability,” she says. The second study2 links climate change to a specific event: damaging floods in 2000 in England and Wales. By running thousands of high-resolution seasonal forecast simulations with or without the effect of greenhouse gases, Myles Allen of the University of Oxford, UK, and his colleagues found that anthropogenic climate change may have almost doubled the risk of the extremely wet weather that caused the floods (see page 382). The rise in extreme precipitation in some Northern Hemisphere areas has been recognized for more than a decade, but this is the first time that the anthropogenic contribution has been nailed down, says Oppenheimer. The findings mean that Northern Hemisphere countries need to prepare for more of these events in the future. “What has been considered a 1-in-100-years event in a stationary climate may actually occur twice as often in the future,” says Allen. But he cautions that climate change may not always raise the risk of weather-related damage. In Britain, for example, snow-melt floods may become less likely as the climate warms. And Allen’s study leaves a 10% chance that global warming has not affected — or has even decreased — the country’s flood risk. Similar attribution studies are under way for flood and drought risk in Europe, meltwater availability in the western United States and drought in southern Africa, typical of the research needed to develop effective climate-adaptation policies. “Governments plan to spend some US$100 billion on climate adaptation by 2020, although presently no one has an idea of what is an impact of climate change and what is just bad weather,” says Allen. Establishing the links between climate change and weather could also shape climate treaties, he says. “If rich countries are to financially compensate the losers of climate change, as some poorer countries would expect, you’d like to have an objective scientific basis for it.” The insurance industry has long worried about increased losses resulting from more extreme weather (see ‘Fatal floods’), but conclusively pinning the blame on climate change will take more research, says Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer with RMS, a company headquartered in Newark, California, that constructs risk models for the insurance industry. “This is a key part of our research agenda and insurance companies do accept the premise” that there could be a link, he says. “If there’s evidence that risk is changing, then this is something we need to incorporate in our models.” See Article in Nature   *     References       1. Min, S.-K. et al. Nature 470, 378-381 (2011). | Article       2. Pall, P. et al. Nature 470, 382-385 (2011). | Article       3. Stott, P. A. et al. Nature 432, 610-614 2011-02-18T01:52:22+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/2011_year_of_the_cat/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/2011_year_of_the_cat/#When:07:45:32Z 2011-02-10T07:45:32+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/emissions_punted_to_durban_breakthrough_seen_on_forests/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/emissions_punted_to_durban_breakthrough_seen_on_forests/#When:22:09:25Z CANCÚN, Mexico, Dec 11, 2010 (IPS/TerraViva) - If success is measured by delaying difficult decisions, then the Cancún climate meeting succeeded by deferring crucial issues over financing and new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the next Conference of the Parties meeting a year from now in Durban, South Africa. International negotiations to address climate change proceeded at a glacial pace in the palatial, over-air-conditioned Moon Palace Resort in Cancún. After two long weeks, final talks dragged on into the early hours of Saturday morning, with Bolivia’s refusal to accept a weak agreement that puts the world on a path that “could allow global temperatures to increase by more than four degrees”, said Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s chief negotiator. In the end, Bolivia’s continued objections were drowned out by applause and cheering by more than 190 national delegations as the chair of the meeting, Mexico’s foreign secretary Patricia Espinosa, gaveled the meeting to a close declaring “a consensus without Bolivia”. “The Cancún text is a hollow and false victory that was imposed without consensus,” Bolivia said in a final statement. Based on the science, Bolivia is not wrong. The World Meteorological Organisation declared last week that the decade will close as the hottest 10- year period on record. The 100+ pages that form the “Cancún Agreements” will do nothing to curb greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet, but did revive the U.N. climate negotiation process after its near death in Copenhagen last year. And most here believe this agreement sets the stage for a substantive agreement at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban next December. “I can’t disagree with Bolivia that based on the science, this agreement as it stands means four degrees C of warming,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace. “The text of the agreement is not good enough, but it does save the process and maybe this gets us to a truly fair, ambitious and balanced treaty in Durban,” Naidoo told TerraViva. “Governments have given a clear signal that they are headed towards a low- emissions future together,” declared UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres. The Cancún Agreements represent “the essential foundation on which to build greater, collective ambition”, Figueres said in a statement. “It’s pathetic the world community struggles so much just to climb over such a low bar,” commented Naidoo, whose hometown is Durban, South Africa. “Our only real hope is to mobilise a broad-based climate movement involving all sectors of the public and civil society before Durban.” Late Friday night in the hallways, the mood was surprisingly upbeat. Not only had the talks not collapsed, there was formal agreement on a number of issues. These included acknowledgement that emissions cuts needed to be in line with the science ­ 25 to 40 percent cuts by 2020 - and the global temperature rise target should be kept below two degrees C instead of at two degrees C as the target in the Copenhagen Accord. However, Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia successfully undermined any binding agreement on how to reach those targets by lobbying to abandon the Kyoto Protocol and replacing it with a weak pledge and review system as proposed in the Copenhagen Accord, according to Friends of the Earth International (FOEI). Current pledges under the accord translate into global temperature rises of three to five degrees C by most analyses. “The agreement reached here is wholly inadequate and could lead to catastrophic climate change,” said Nnimmo Bassey, FOEI chair. Bassey is this year’s winner of the Right Livelihood Award - the ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ - for “revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production” in Nigeria, his home country. Bassey said developed countries need to reduce their emissions by 40 percent under a new Kyoto Protocol commitment period with legally binding commitments. The current Kyoto commitment to reduce emissions by five percent from 1990 levels ends in 2012. Most developed countries are meeting that target, with the notable exception of Canada, whose emissions have soared 30 percent. Canada, Japan and Russia have declared they will not agree to a second Kyoto commitment. The U.S. refused to ratify the first Kyoto commitment and rejects the second as well. Those positions nearly derailed the talks since developing countries have long insisted rich countries agree to binding reductions under Kyoto. Agreeing to disagree, the final fight for Kyoto has been punted to Durban. A Global Climate Fund was also agreed to with a $100-billion commitment by 2020, with a re-commitment of $35 billion by 2012 to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to impacts of climate change. The fund will be managed by a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries with funding channeled through the World Bank for the first three years. Tropical forest protection may be the big breakthrough coming out of Cancún. Delegates adopted a decision that establishes a three-phase process for tropical countries to reduce deforestation and receive compensation from developed countries, and it includes protections for forest peoples and biodiversity. Deforestation presently contributes 15 to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “This is so much better than what we had in Copenhagen,” said Peg Putt of the Wilderness Society, a U.S.-based conservation group. “There was official recognition of the multiple benefits of forests and ecosystem integrity,” Putt told TerraViva. Loopholes have been closed and good progress made on tackling the drivers of deforestation, she said. Much work is left to do to strengthen safeguards and work out the details for a new financial tool called REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). REDD remains very controversial. It is widely touted as a way to mobilise $10 to $30 billion annually to protect forests by selling carbon credits to industries in lieu of reductions in emissions. “I’m feeling very good about the prospects for forests,” Putt said in an interview. Many Indigenous and civil society groups reject REDD outright if it allows developed countries to avoid real emission reductions by offsetting their emissions. “We reject false solutions like the carbon market mechanisms of REDD,” said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. REDD represents a new set of tradable property rights based on trees and other environmental services, Goldtooth said in an interview. “If we are going to save the climate, we need to focus on real solutions that assure that forests will be left standing and people’s rights are respected,” he said. Although Bolivia’s stance will be much commented on, the more than 500 organisations in the Climate Action Network (CAN) once again voted Canada’s radical right-wing government as the most obstructive nation in the world. For its four years in power, Canada’s Stephen Harper government has won the “Colossal Fossil for the year” during climate negotiations for consistent efforts on behalf of its huge tar sands oil sector to block an agreement. “Canada’s tar sands sector is truly among the global elite, an all- star of greenhouse gas pollution,” a CAN spokesperson said in a statement. “Despite an overall record of climate futility, Canadians should rest assured there’s at least one thing here that Canada is really, really good at.” 2010-12-11T22:09:25+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/climate_change_a_cancun_christmas_wish_list/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/climate_change_a_cancun_christmas_wish_list/#When:00:01:42Z CANCUN, 9 December 2010 (IRIN) - Reaching a convergence of views on at least some of the pressing issues being discussed at the UN climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, before they end on 10 December, is at the top of the wish list of many delegates. Moving towards implementation often appears to be a star too far. IRIN spoke to four leading climate change negotiating officials from developing countries about their Cancun Christmas wish list: Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Africa group’s chief negotiator; Hasan Mahmud, the Bangladesh Minister for Environment and Forests; Dessima Williams, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS); and Mama Konate, the main negotiator from Mali. In the corridors of Moon Palace, the venue where the talks are being held, thousands of delegates walk purposefully from one gathering to another. But the negotiations have been moving at a slower pace, with “extreme options” on many issues – “we need to come to a compromise” position to move forward, said Mpanu-Mpanu. He would like to see a compromise that could deliver a new climate fund to help developing countries adapt to the impact of extreme natural climatic events, provide technology and build capacity to cope, and grow with fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified Africa as one of the regions most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, not only because of the climate variability it faces but also for its “low adaptive capacity” - the continent is home to most of the world’s Least Developed Countries. “A Christmas wish out of … the [climate change] talks involves a very emotional issue for us … But we have to put our emotions aside and negotiate,” Mpanu-Mpanu told IRIN. African countries cannot afford to send large delegations, so they have pooled their technical skills and resources and divided the negotiating tracks – adaptation, mitigation, finance, capacity building and technology transfer – among themselves. “The division of labour has worked very well for us. Despite our limited resources we have worked very efficiently - we are 53 countries and now speaking with one voice,” Mpanu-Mpanu said. He expects the Africa group to deliver everyone’s Christmas wish. “We are working on a [negotiating] text which will try to bring everyone together, as I think every other group [at the talks] is as well,” he said. “We have two tools on our side - international law, in the form of the Kyoto Protocol [of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] and science – we plan to use these,” Mpanu-Mpanu said. Hasan Mahmud, a former academic, now Bangladesh’s Minister for Environment and Forests, is less optimistic. “If we don’t come up with some progress here in Cancun, after the failure of Copenhagen, people will dismiss this as another UN picnic.” Mahmud, along with his counterpart from Australia, has been asked to work with the negotiators to resolve issues around finance, capacity building and technology transfer. He, too, would like to achieve consensus. The debate on the Finance Track of the negotiations has jammed over the establishment of a new climate change fund. “All countries agree we need a fund, but there are countries who are opposed to the establishment of one in Cancun, while developing countries would like to see something concrete come out of here.” Progress in the talks on capacity building and technology transfer was also tied to the availability of funds, but one of the sticking points in the transfer of technology – for instance, to produce renewable energy – was intellectual property rights, Mahmud said. “Many developed countries call for strong patent laws in developing nations to ease technology transfer,” wrote Achala Chandani and Linda Siegele, researchers at the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development in a brief on the Cancun meeting. “[However,] some developing countries say that strictly enforced patent rights can lead to high licence costs and obstruct the use and adaptation of technologies for local conditions.” Mahmud said many countries were suggesting that the debate on intellectual property rights be deferred. The fiery Dessima Williams, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) would love to see an international mechanism set up to provide financial compensation for the loss and damage caused by a rising sea level, more intense and frequent cyclones, and other slow-onset impacts of climate change. AOSIS proposed the mechanism in 2008. “We must see this happen here [Cancun], otherwise we will not be able to survive,” she said. The cost of extreme natural events “can cripple poor nations — in 2008 cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people in Myanmar and caused an estimated US$4 billion in damages [about 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product],” wrote Chandani and Siegele. “Developed countries are uncomfortable with terms like ‘compensation’ when describing the ‘Loss and Damage’ mechanism, because it indicates a legal obligation to take an action,” the international NGO, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) noted in a statement in Cancun. WWF said the mechanism should also cover climate change induced displacement, migration and relocation of vulnerable populations. Many negotiators agreed with Mama Konate, the lead negotiator from Mali, that the twin-track process – of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and providing support to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation – should continue. “We cannot support calls from some countries to do away with the twin-track process,” said Konate, who also chairs the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the UNFCCC. There is a split between some developed and all developing countries over whether support for adaptation should also be accounted for as emissions are. Developing countries want financial support to be measurable. Konate said the process to set up a new climate fund should happen in Cancun, and not be left until a later date. “There is goodwill,” he said optimistically. ”There is much less aggression than compared to Copenhagen.” 2010-12-10T00:01:42+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/natural_disasters_and_household_welfare_evidence_from_vietnam/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/natural_disasters_and_household_welfare_evidence_from_vietnam/#When:04:05:25Z As natural disasters hit with increasing frequency, especially in coastal areas, it is imperative to better understand how much natural disasters affect economies and their people. This requires disaggregated measures of natural disasters that can be reliably linked to households, the first challenge this paper tackles. In particular, a methodology is illustrated to create natural disaster and hazard maps from first hand, geo-referenced meteorological data. In a second step, the repeated cross-sectional national living standard measurement surveys (2002, 2004, and 2006) from Vietnam are augmented with the natural disaster measures derived in the first phase, to estimate the welfare effects associated with natural disasters. The results indicate that short-run losses from natural disasters can be substantial, with riverine floods causing welfare losses of up to 23 percent and hurricanes reducing welfare by up to 52 percent inside cities with a population over 500,000. Households are better able to cope with the short-run effects of droughts, largely due to irrigation. There are also important long-run negative effects, in Vietnam mostly so for droughts, flash floods, and hurricanes. Geographical differentiation in the welfare effects across space and disaster appears partly linked to the functioning of the disaster relief system, which has so far largely eluded households in areas regularly affected by hurricane force winds. Source: The World Bank Group See Report here 2010-12-07T04:05:25+00:00 http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/natural_catastrophes_and_man-made_disasters_caused_economic_losses_of_usd_2/ http://www.dwf.org/index.php/site/natural_catastrophes_and_man-made_disasters_caused_economic_losses_of_usd_2/#When:12:39:05Z Preliminary estimates for 2010 from Swiss Re sigma show that natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused economic losses of USD 222 billion and cost insurers USD 36 billion According to initial estimates from Swiss Re’s sigma team, worldwide economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters were USD 222 billion in 2010, more than triple the 2009 figure of USD 63 billion. The cost to the global insurance industry was USD 36 billion, an increase of 34% over the previous year. Approximately 260 000 people died in these events, the highest number since 1976. In 2010, severe catastrophes claimed significantly more lives than the previous year: nearly 260 000 were killed, compared to 15 000 in 2009. The deadliest event in 2010 was the Haiti earthquake in January, claiming more than 222 000 lives. Approximately 15 000 people died during the summer heat wave in Russia. The summer floods in China and Pakistan also resulted in 6 225 deaths. High earthquake losses in 2010 Natural catastrophes cost the global insurance industry roughly USD 31 billion in 2010, and man-made disasters triggered additional claims of approximately USD 5 billion. By way of comparison, overall insured losses totalled USD 27 billion in 2009. Despite notably higher than average earthquake losses, overall claims in 2010 were in line with the 20-year average due to unusually modest US hurricane losses. However, the estimate of USD 36 billion is still subject to uncertainty due to, amongst other things, the ongoing European winter storm season. Eight events triggered losses of over USD 1 billion each In the first eleven months of 2010, eight events each triggered insurance losses in excess of USD 1 billion. The costliest event in 2010 was the earthquake in Chile in February, which cost the insurance industry USD 8 billion, according to preliminary estimates.  The earthquake that struck New Zealand in September cost insurers roughly USD 2.7 billion. Winter storm Xynthia in Western Europe led to insured losses of USD 2.8 billion. Property claims from the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico are estimated at USD 1 billion. Given the complexity of the claims, the figure is still subject to substantial uncertainty. The overall insurance loss is higher, as liability losses are not included in the sigma numbers. Floods in France during the month of June caused insured losses just below USD 1 billion. Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost society USD 222 billion in 2010 These devastating events caused economic losses to soar to an estimated USD 222 billion, compared to USD 63 billion in 2009. Thomas Hess, Chief Economist of Swiss Re, commented: ”The humanitarian catastrophes again showed how important prevention and post disaster management are for protecting the lives and health of people affected by natural hazards. They also revealed large differences in how developed insurance systems are in the affected countries and how important insurance is in coping with the financial consequences of disasters. While most of the costliest events caused by the earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand and the winter storm in Western Europe were covered by insurance, events like the earthquake in Haiti and floods in Asia were barely insured.” See Full report 2010-11-30T12:39:05+00:00