A campaign protest by Tcktcktck in Bonn, Germany to say NO to the Copenhagen Accord and "How low can you go?" This campaign advocates the AOSIS position of 1.5 degrees to stay alive.
If you click on the image you can see the photos of the protest.
Images are taken by Ms Komai who will be covering the Bonn Climate Change negotiations from 31 May – 11 June 2010, thanks to support from Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). She will provide daily coverage of the negotiations via PACNEWS and the SPREP website www.sprep.org, the climate pasifika blogspot, http://climatepasifika.blogspot.com and the PINA Green page http://green.pina.com.fj/
By Makereta Komai for Climate Pasifika in Bonn, Germany
04 June 2010 Bonn, Germany --- A report released this week by Auckland University claiming that many low lying Pacific Island nations are ‘growing, not sinking’ has attracted strong criticism from one Pacific climate change negotiator here in Bonn, Germany.
Ambassador Colin Beck of Solomon Islands questioned the timing of the release of the report, especially when the Pacific and other Alliance of Small Island States are pursuing recognition for their special vulnerability to the impact of climate change.
“This kind of science in our view is short sighted.
“It is sad to see a university from our region make general statement without looking at the long term implications. Off course all corals are growing but they are sensitive to temperature. You cannot say the same thing if the sea continues to rise and to ocean acidification which results in coral bleaching.
“Unfortunately, the timing of the report is not right for us and we see it as sending a wrong signal.
“While we believe that the outcome has to be science driven, this kind of science is a little bit short sighted in our view.
“It is politicised science because it tries to bring in a different science reality into the political reality to give the perception that things will be good in the long run.
According to a BBC report published Friday, the islands of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are among those which have grown, because of coral debris and sediment.
The study, featured in the magazine the New Scientist, predicts that the islands will still be there in 100 years' time. However it is still unsure whether many of them will be inhabitable.
In recent times, the inhabitants of many low-lying Pacific islands have come to fear their homelands being wiped off the map because of rising sea levels. But this study of 27 islands over the last 60 years suggests that most have remained stable, while some have actually grown.
Associate Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University, who took part in the study, published in the journal Global and Planetary Change says the islands are not in immediate danger of extinction.
“That rather gloomy prognosis for these nations is incorrect,” he told the BBC.
“We have now got the evidence to suggest that the physical foundation of these countries will still be there in 100 years, so they perhaps do not need to flee their country.”
But although these islands might not be submerged under the waves in the short-term, it does not mean they will be inhabitable in the long-term, and the scientists believe further rises in sea levels pose a significant danger to the livelihoods of people living in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia.
One scientist in Kiribati said that people should not be lulled into thinking that inundation and coastal erosion were not a major threat.
Ms Komai will be covering the Bonn Climate Change negotiations from 31 May – 11 June 2010, thanks to support from Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). She will provide daily coverage of the negotiations via PACNEWS and the SPREP website www.sprep.org, the climate pasifika blogspot, http://climatepasifika.blogspot.com and the PINA Green page http://green.pina.com.fj/
By Makereta Komai of Climate Pasifika in Bonn, Germany
04 June 2010 Bonn, Germany --- A week after climate change talks here in Bonn, a ‘workable’ text has emerged but negotiators are still cautious with how it will pen out at the end of next week.
It’s perceived as ‘workable’ because all the 185 nations present here have worked comprehensively on the two texts – the Long Term Co-operative Action (LCA) and the amendment to the Kyoto Protocol (KP), said Ambassador Colin Beck of Solomon Islands, who is one of the Pacific’s leading negotiators on climate change.
“It’s not only the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which includes AOSIS that is positive about the outcome of this week’s progress. The African Group, the European Union, the Umbrella Group and the United States have been contributing to the discussions.
Even though the United States is not a party to the Kyoto Protocol, it is participating in the LCA text which is related to the Protocol.
“So far, there has been positive feedback to the well co-ordinated interventions made by Parties. Group statements are being made rather than the open discussions which led to repetitive interventions.
The success talks of the current talks is attributed to what many countries are saying that it is ‘Party driven’ supporting the two ad hoc working group chairs in facilitating the negotiation.
“Mexico is also supporting this process through informal sessions, discussing difficult issues and linking them up with the negotiations.
“Parties are now engaging in constructive and pragmatic discussions.
There is also an outreach from major industrialised countries to discuss more difficult issues, said Ambassador Beck.
“It’s totally a new atmosphere and we are beginning to see a more ‘think outside the box’ approach, he added.
His observations are supported by regional climate change adviser, Espen Ronneberg.
“There has been some progress in the different working groups but there is still a long way to go before we can see any conclusions. I think the sort of targeted questions the LCA chair has put up have been quiet helpful. We just need to see how the responses are going to be reflected by the chair.
“These are questions in the area of financing – the kind of relationship between the different technical boards that are being proposed and the financial mechanisms, on adaptation, there are some questions on institutional structures.
“For us in the Pacific, our focus now is that we need to move into implementation. There are still a few stumbling blocks, with a few countries saying they need to be convinced before any implementation is approved, said Ronneberg.
In addition, Ambassador Beck raised the concerns of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) that there appears to be no lowering of expectations.
“These are part of the imbalances and gaps that need to be sorted out hopefully before the end of next week.
“There are a number of gaps we still see in the negotiating texts.
These include loss of damage and the definition of vulnerability, said Ambassador Beck.
But all in all, there is greater improvement in the text, compared to the failed negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, he added.
Ms Komai will be covering the Bonn Climate Change negotiations from 31 May – 11 June 2010, thanks to support from Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). She will provide daily coverage of the negotiations via PACNEWS and the SPREP website www.sprep.org, the climate pasifika blogspot, http://climatepasifika.blogspot.com and the PINA Green page http://green.pina.com.fj/
A campaign protest by Tcktcktck in Bonn, Germany to say NO to the Copenhagen Accord and "How low can you go?" This campaign advocates the AOSIS position of 1.5 degrees to stay alive. 
