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DM2009 in the Blogsphere and Social Media -- So Far

Florian Sturm's picture

This is just a short resumé of what has happened today (Thursday, Nov. 11) and yesterday in the blogsphere and on social media in relation to Development Marketplace 2009.

Our aim was to reach a broad audience with the web 2.0 tools we are using, such as Twitter or Facebook. Also, we wanted to encourage our participants to share their projects with the world, using platforms such as Youtube or FlickR.

So far we are quite content -- here are some blog posts about this event:

 

Furthermore we gathered a lot of video footage from the event, live webcast and even self-made by the participants and organizers on the Development Marketplace 2009 Youtube channel.

Here is a video of Tuesday's opening of the event:

No Empty Chairs, Please...

Tom Grubisich's picture

It's very important for all finalists to be at their booths by 10 o'clock Wednesday morning.  That's when the jurors will begin making their rounds and continue until 3 in the afternoon.

The jurors will go round in pairs.  Each finalist will be interviewed twice.

So, set your alarm, grab that coffee, or tea, or whatever, and get yourself to your booth on time.

And knock out those jurors.  They'll want to know all the technical stuff behind your project, but they'll be looking for your passion, too.  Show it!

 

Danish Ambassador to U.S.: Engage Now to Reach Agreement in Copenhagen

The U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is only a few weeks away and climate change negotiators are working day and night to identify the common ground for an agreement.

I see three key issues in the negotiations:

1.    Setting of tarFriis Arne Petersen, Danish Ambassador to the U.S.gets by developed countries for greenhouse gas emission reduction.
2.    Commitment by developing countries to actions on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
3.    Financing of adaptation and mitigation in developing countries.

These are very difficult issues, but let me state the obvious: We cannot compromise on our ambitions to limit man made global warming to a maximum of two degrees centigrade, and thus have a good chance to adapt to the consequent impacts.

Science is very clear on this point: If we continue to increase the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we are bound to pass a number of critical tipping points that may lead to dire consequences. And it is also clear that we can halt or change the trend. It is doable and indeed profitable compared to the cost of inaction, the cost of doing nothing.

My aspiration for Copenhagen is simple: We must conclude a binding agreement that will set the world on the path to limit global warming to a maximum of two degrees.

Where the Finalists Put Their Focus

Tom Grubisich's picture

The DM2009 competition has three sub-themes:

  • Resilience of Indigenous Peoples Communities to Climate Risks.
  • Climate Risk Management with Multiple Benefits.
  • Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management.

This is how the finalists' projects break down by sub-theme:

Latin Indigenous Peoples Hard Hit by Climate Change

Tom Grubisich's picture

Some 28 million members of Indigenous Peoples live in Latin America, many of them in poverty and prone to flooding and other weather extremes caused or exacerbated by climate change.  A number of finalist projects aim to give Indigenous Peoples in Latin America a cushion against weather extremes.

Here's a sampling of the projects:

In Mexico, ITESM at Tecnologico de Monterrey seeks "to help people from Tutuaca, Otachique, and Conoachi communities in Chihuahua through a biocultural rescuing program to maintain native maize genetic diversity facing climate change needs, including validation and verification mechanisms to preserve their diverse maize races."

In Peru, an organization of women from four communities in the High Andean region proposes "to recover ancestral knowledge and techniques to mitigate the effects of cold spells, reducing the vulnerability of 2,758 comuneros belonging to 551 families in the district of Palca."

In El Savador, Instituto para en Rescate Ancestral Indigena Salvadoreno  (RAIS) seeks to "recover, divulge, and make people aware of the knowledge of 100 wise indigenous women regarding the properties and interpretation of the language of both climate and earth as a support tool to prevent climate-change risks."

Driving adaptation with effective communication tools in Africa

Joachim Ezeji's picture

Part 1 of 2

Does it bother you that most discussions of how to address climate change in Africa have focused much more on adaptation(e.g. coping with the storms, floods, drought, sea- floor rise and other impacts that climate change will bring) than mitigation (e.g. reducing green house emission etc)?

Not to worry, both adaptation and mitigation are very crucial in addressing the challenges of climate change. However, the onus of addressing mitigation is common with countries like China, USA, Russia, India, Japan, Germany, Canada, UK, South Korea, Iran, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, France, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Ukraine and Poland etc whose expanding economy has a huge feed demand for fuel. For these countries, mitigation is a central concern they constitute the top 20 CO2 emitters per capita (measured at metric tonnes per person). Apart from South Africa, no other African country made this list.

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