Tag Archives: opinion
UN Carbon Market Health Depends On Global Ambition – JI Chair
20 June 2013, 3:49 pm By John Parnell – See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/…h.60MVdq16.dpuf Fixing carbon markets and mechanisms will do nothing to reduce emissions without ambitious climate policies from governments a senior climate diplomat has warned. Derrick Oderson, chair of the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC), said fixing the Joint Implementation (JI) programme was not the real long term goal. “The JI will be put to good use only when countries do what’s needed with respect to commitments to reduce. This is an extremely urgent matter, not to save the JI, but to avoid calamity,” he told RTCC in an emailed interview. The JI, part of the Kyoto Protocol, allows industrialised nations to invest in low carbon projects in economies in transition. Low carbon prices, partly a result of low greenhouse gas reduction targets, have damaged the scheme’s health. Oderson has been overseeing a review of the JI to get it back on its feet and is confident it will have a role to play when a new, global treaty replaces Kyoto in 2020. Read the full interview with Oderson below: Derrick Oderson, chair of the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (Source: UNFCCC) What effect has the new extended but streamlined Kyoto Protocol had on the JI in the 6 months since Doha finished? Agreeing a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol was a key success of Doha. In the six months since COP 18, the JI Supervisory Committee has been working to fine-tune its recommendations to the Parties on how to improve the JI for a stronger future. This JISC is hopeful that these recommendations will be adopted in Warsaw at the end of the year. That said, without increased ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mechanisms like JI have a limited role. With ambitious targets, mechanisms like JI become indispensable. It’s as simple as that. Low carbon prices and imbalances in supply and demand are being addressed in carbon markets, what is the best course of action in your opinion to address low prices in offset mechanisms? Again, countries need to increase their level of ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If countries committed to the level of abatement that is required to address climate change, then demand for tools like JI – and the clean development mechanism, and other mechanisms and approaches – would be immediate and substantial. Given the types of projects that JI invests in, energy efficiency for example, do you think it can argue more than others that participation has economic advantages? I think the strength of JI is that it can be used by countries to focus investment on whatever sector makes sense. However, the mechanism’s value is tied to countries’ efforts to reduce emissions. With prices for units so low, and emission reduction ambition well below what is needed to address climate change, the incentive is just not there. How important is ambitious climate action by governments in making tools like the JI effective? JI will be put to good use only when countries do what’s needed with respect to commitments to reduce. This is an extremely urgent matter, not to save the JI, but to avoid calamity. The JI exists, above all, as a mechanism to support least-cost options for climate change mitigation. Climate change is not going away. It is the JISC’s job to ensure that JI is there for countries when they do turn to reach for it. With the benefit of hindsight, what would change about the JI if you could redesign it? Joint implementation is a fully functioning tool that countries took a great deal of trouble to create. JI has shown that it works, but it has also shown that it could be improved. The JISC has invested a lot of effort into developing recommendations to do just that. The key feature of our recommendations is creating a single track for the oversight of JI projects, administered by an international body. Only then will people have the level of comfort in the mechanism that is required, with respect to the reliability of oversight and the quality of the emission reductions produced. The recommendations also include creating an aligned or unified accreditation process with the CDM, an appeals procedure and clear additionality requirements amongst other things. The full recommendations are on the UNFCCC website (JISC 30, Annex 1). How do you see the future of the JI in the new climate regime? National governments and the private sector see value in the JI mechanism. It works, helping countries to focus and incentivize investment. Parties could quite easily agree to the needed improvements in JI – these have already been before them for consideration – and they could (and should) come up with the bridging decisions that would carry JI to the next phase of international action. The challenge in coming up with recommendations for the future has been to devise a mechanism that has the benefits of flexibility and strong national involvement, but which can ensure a healthy, useful measure of broad, independent oversight. The JISC thinks it has done this in its recommendations for revisions to the JI guidelines. Continue reading
Holy Quran Park to open next September
Holy Quran Park to open next September Staff Reporter / 21 June 2013 The Dubai Municipality has announced a new theme park project called Holy Quran Park to be located in Al Khawaneej. Construction of the new public park has begun, meaning visitors should be able to experience the miracles of the Holy Quran by next September. The 60-hectare park, designed in the Islamic perspective and estimated to cost about Dh27 million depending on the final design, will introduce visitors to the miracles and stories of the Quran in an air-conditioned tunnel. Other facilities will include children’s play areas, an outside theatre, fountains, a lake, running-cycling-and-walking tracks, a palm oasis and an Islamic garden. The garden, along with a glass building, will showcase all plants mentioned in the holy book, including fig, pomegranate, olive, corn, leek, garlic, onion, lentil, barley, wheat, ginger, pumpkin, watermelon, tamarind, ceder, vineyards, bananas, cucumbers, and basil, in a bid to encourage people to think about why the plants are mentioned. General projects department director Mohammed Noor Mashroom said the initial site preparation works, tracks and service buildings had been completed. The second stage will start next month and end in July next year, while the third stage, starting in August 2014, was expected to be completed in September next year. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Dubai Cares highlights plight of refugee children
Dubai Cares highlights plight of refugee children (Wam) / 20 June 2013 On the occasion of World Refugee Day, Dubai Cares, a philanthropic organisation working to improve children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries, has highlighted the plight of 43.3 million people worldwide forcibly displaced from their homes and communities. Dubai Cares, through its ongoing efforts, has extended support to refugees, especially children who constitute 46 per cent of refugees, and people in refugee-like situations, so that they have a safe haven where they can recover from mental and physical trauma and rebuild their hopes for a better future. Commenting on this occasion, Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Cares said: “Children and their families who have experienced war-related trauma and disruption as refugees are affected by issues such as poverty, hunger and unemployment and are unfortunate victims in this ongoing struggle to create a better future. We are working to create a sense of normalcy and hope for refugees who have been uprooted from their homes and communities.” One of Dubai Cares’ ongoing programmes reaching out to refugees is a school-feeding programme in Ethiopia benefitting 25,000 primary school age children from Somalia. The refugees are sheltered in United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) camps in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia, which, in the second half of 2012, received more than 100,000 Somali refugees affected by the 2011 food crisis, described by the United Nations as the “worst in a generation”. In Dollo Ado the children of school-going age comprise about 46 per cent of the total refugee population of which only 31 per cent of them attend school and the school feeding programme. Schools in camps have morning and afternoon shifts in order to cover as many pupils as possible. The programme aims to stabilise school enrolment of refugee girls and boys in WFP-assisted schools and to combat the malnutrition crises of the refugees by providing on-site hot meals to school children. The programme provides meals to schoolchildren in the form of a porridge made up of Supercereal (100gr/person/day), a highly nutritious food fortified with vitamins and minerals, and sugar (20gr/person/day). Dubai Cares has also supported programmes in the Middle East, particularly across the Occupied Palestinian territories, and worked with Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. In the Occupied Palestinian territories while partnering with Medicines Sans Frontiere, Dubai Cares has supported emergency medical support for children in the Kemal Edwan Hospital as well as a deworming campaign for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) school children in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in order to promote and improve their health status, according to a press release by Dubai Cares. In Lebanon and Jordan, Dubai Cares was part of an educational emergency programme, implemented by UNRWA, which ensured Palestinian refugee children in Nahr El Bared camp were given access to basic education services. In Jordan, Dubai Cares in partnership with UNRWA supported the building of a new elementary and preparatory school for boys in Al Zarqa Refugee Camp. The programme included the building of a fully furnished and equipped school to replace dilapidated buildings. This ensured that students could learn in a safe environment conducive to learning. Continue reading
