Poland , The major international climate change meetings of the year are taking place in Poznan, December 1 through 12. This is the last "Conference of the Parties" (COP) to the UNFCCC before the critical COP in Copenhagen in December of 2009. (Here is Poland's website for the conference as well.)
In the wake of the momentum built by the Bali meetings last year, and the critical IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and other developments, and with an eye on Copenhagen, Poznan will be a launching pad for a "plan of action and programmes of work" and to further a ""shared vision' for a new climate change regime." Very interested participants and observers will certainly include members of Congress and staff, as well as key players in the next administration. Copenhagen will be where the international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol will be finalized.
This upcoming meeting and subsequent discussions that will take place in 2009 may very well mean life or death. Hyperbole is always a danger but when you are talking about global warming, as we've seen here and on which we're getting more alarming evidence by the week, life and death is not too strong an expression.
Carbon Finance , World Bank Creates Green Bond to Finance Mitigation and Adaptation is the headline from Climate-L.org, an excellent "knowledge management project for international negotiations and related activities on climate change" run by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). The World Bank's press release notes that this is a "partnership with SEB and several key Scandinavian institutional investors to raise funds for projects seeking to mitigate climate change or help affected people adapt to it." SEB is a bank based in Sweden.
Not incidentally, the World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit does very good work and is a tremendous source of information. I've also made reference to this critical aspect of the fight against global warming a good number of times. See Carbon Markets.
Stamps , The UN has issued climate change stamps. They're quite handsome and come in different denominations. You can go here to see them and to order. They're a creation of the photographer Gary Braasch who has been doing some superb work documenting the impacts of climate change.
