Blue Planet Prize Winners Call for Transformational Change to Achieve Sustainable Development

Leading scientists and experts in sustainable development call for urgent changes to tackle environmental crises and improve human well-being. The group – all past winners of the Blue Planet Prize – are challenging governments ahead of the Rio+20 Summit later this year to limit human-induced climate change, stop the loss of biodiversity and halt ecosystem degradation.

Dr Balgis Osman-Elasha: Co-Author of Report On How Climate Endangers Forests

There is no doubt Climate Change is changing our weather. But the effects could lead to increasing poverty, starvation, fewer industry jobs, less investment and increased danger from natural Hazards. Our edited extracts from the Global Assessment report: “Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change” from Dr. Balgis Osman-Elasha, lead author for International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) help explain the potential problems.

Use the Profit Motive to Fight Climate Change

(An article contributed by the British Prime Minister David Cameron to the Observer on the climate change talks currently taking place in Cancun.)Over the past twelve months we’ve seen the devastation that unchecked climate change could bring – floods in Pakistan, forest fires in Russia, mudslides in China. And yet over the same twelve months we’ve seen a growing despondency about international efforts to protect our planet. Copenhagen was a disappointment for everyone who cares about climate change. Though some important steps were taken, simply not enough progress was made. But today, as the world looks to Cancun, I want to argue that everyone who cares about climate change should take heart – because I believe there are three clear reasons to have hope for the future.

Philippines: A Hotspot for Climate Change

Manila, the country’s capital, is the most vulnerable province when it comes to climate change. That’s according to Dr. Herminia A. Francisco, director of the Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA). “In Southeast Asia, Manila ranks seventh,” Dr. Francisco told the participants of the climate change media workshop convened by the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists, Inc. In 2009, EEPSEA made a detailed mapping assessment of seven countries in Asia, namely: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The assessment studied 590 subnational areas comprising 341 districts in Indonesia, 19 provinces in Cambodia, 17 provinces in Laos, 14 states in Malaysia, 74 provinces in the Philippines, 72 provinces in Thailand, and 53 provinces in Vietnam.

Top Climate Scientists Set 40% Reduction of Carbon Emissions by 2020 for UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen

Top scientists have discovered that even a rise in temperature of 2°C will entail considerable hardships for poor and vulnerable people around the world, especially those living on low-lying islands and coasts. Joining the WWF recognised climate luminaries such as Sir John Houghton, former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) call for industrialised countries to make a commitment, at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen, to cut carbon emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.