In Focus archive

UNESCO Participation in the UNFCCC 13th Conference of the Parties, December 3-14, Bali Indonesia

UNESCO's will participate in the upcoming UNFCCC 13th Conference of the Parties, sometime referred to as "the Bali Conference" on global climate change. UNESCO will be represented at COP-13 by:  Mr Patricio Bernal, ADG/IOC; Mr Hubert Gijzen, Director of the Jakarta Office; Mr Jan Henning Steffen, SC/JAK; Ms L. Anathea Brooks, SC/EO and by guest speakers Prof. Johan Hattingh, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and Prof. J. Timmons Roberts, co-author of A Climate of Injustice and Director of the Mellon Environmental Studies Program at the College of William and Mary, USA.

UNESCO is also hosting a side event during the high-level negotiation segment of the meeting. The side event, to take place from 1 to 3 p.m. on 14 December, is entitled Articulating science and education to face the challenge of global climate change: a UNESCO dialogue. The challenge of climate change calls for understanding vulnerability, enhancing resilience and promoting positive behavioural change. This cannot be achieved without the strong articulation between the sciences - natural and social - and education that constitutes UNESCO's distinctive contribution.

The side event will be a dialogue between several social scientists on what basic questions need to be asked in order for the physical science basis of global climate change to be integrated into policies at the national level to address climate change adaptation and mitigation.  This will include an attempt to come to agreement on a common vocabulary, and on what the specific needs of less developed countries will be in order to successfully participate in the dialogue towards solutions.  Education will be paramount to achieving outcomes based on consensus.

For more information about this conference, please contact Ms Anathea Brooks (a.brooks@unesco.org).

From top: Dr R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, Dr Renate Christ, Secretary of the IPCC, and Al Gore, former US Vice President.

Nobel Peace Prize for work raising issue of climate change

The WMO-UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former US Vice-President Al Gore share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change,” announced the Nobel Foundation on 12 October 2007. Mr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, paid tribute “the experts and scientists [that] are the backbone of the IPCC” and thanked “the governments of the world who support and facilitate the work of the Panel.”

Mr Pachauri spoke at the recent (2 October) UNESCO Executive Board thematic debate on “The Construction of Knowledge Societies and Climate Change.” Thanking UNESCO for its efforts concerning climate change, he encouraged a look at adaptation to climate change in a multi-discplinary sense, involving not just the technical, but the societal and cultural challenges involved. Executive Board Member States subsequently passed a resolution inviting the Director-General to continue contributing to global efforts to address climate change within UNESCO’s mandate and competencies.

UNESCO’s programmes in climate research and monitoring, including the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP, co-sponsored with WMO and ICSU), the World Water Assessment Programme, the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS, co-sponsored with WMO, UNEP, and ICSU), the Global Ocean Observing System, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on climate change assessed by the IPCC. UNESCO hosted the release of IPCC's Working Group I report on 2 February 2007.

UN Secretary-General's high level event addresses the leadership challenge of climate change

24 September 2007 - World leaders have demonstrated the political will necessary to make a breakthrough on climate change, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he wrapped up the largest-ever meeting of heads of State or government on the issue. “This has been a groundbreaking, historical event,” he told reporters following the conclusion of the gathering at United Nations Headquarters in New York, which he also characterized as a “sea-change in the response to climate change.” The Future in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change took place one day before the opening of the UN General Assembly's annual General Debate. It was aimed at building momentum for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali from 3 to 14 December, when negotiations for a new international climate agreement are due to begin.

Before the high-level event, Francesco Bandarin, Director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, told more than 100 United Nations Delegates, Secretariat officials, journalists and private sector representatives that 'the integrity of hundreds of irreplaceable natural and cultural sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List are threatened by global climate change. Climate change and heritage conservation needs are both long-term,' he said, 'but political decision-making is too often approached on a short-term basis. As an international community, we must learn how to bridge this gap'. The special briefing on the Impact of Climate Change on World Heritage was organized by UNESCO's office in New York and took place on 21 September 2007.