Climate Change

July 5, 2011 – Download our new Impact Report highlighting FIELD’s recent work on climate change.

FIELD's Impact Report 2011 (PDF)

March 7, 2011 - Do they advance global cooperation on climate change?

It is a question of whether to see the glass as half-empty or half-full. Many view Cancun as a success - it buried the failure of Copenhagen and provided opportunities to advance global cooperation in adaptation, forests, climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building.

On the other hand, the Cancun Agreements also leave much to be desired.

October 4, 2010. Climate-vulnerable developing nations could use international law to break the current deadlock in the intergovernmental negotiations on climate change by taking industrialised nations to court. Read the new FIELD briefing paper on Climate litigation - summary or full paper.

September 6, 2010 - FIELD has a new project from the Department for International Development (DFID) to help UK Overseas Territories (OTs) to engage with the international climate change negotiations. The OTs are mostly islands, with beautiful, unique environments, spread all over the globe. In the months leading up to the UN Cancun Climate Change Conference in December this year FIELD will be preparing briefing papers and updates for the OTs.

Antonio La Viña, who led the REDD-plus negotiations for Copenhagen, shares some personal reflections in ‘Ways Forward after Copenhagen: Reflections on the Climate Change Negotiating Processes by the REDD-plus Facilitator’

20 October, 2009 - FIELD warns that international legal frameworks are unprepared to deal with people displaced by climate change. Although estimates vary widely as to how many climate exiles can be expected, it is clear that the international community needs to prepare for the likelihood that some small island countries and low-lying territories will be lost in the future.

29 September, 2009 - FIELD staff are helping developing countries, including small islands, in the international climate change negotiations in Bangkok between 28 September and 9 October. FIELD has a new project to help developing country negotiators with REDD-plus. See our REDD project page for a briefing paper for the Bangkok session and ‘Quick Tips' for new negotiators.

FIELD staff are attending the climate change negotiations in Bonn from 1-12 June, which are preparing the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December. In Copenhagen, countries will be expected to agree on new greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to replace the Kyoto Protocol targets, which are expiring.

From 20-24 April, 2009, the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change took place in Anchorage, Alaska. FIELD provided strategic advice on how to bring the concerns of indigenous groups into the climate change negotiations.

All over the world Indigenous Peoples are affected by the impacts of climate change. They often live close to the land and depend on it for their livelihoods and well-being. In September 2008, FIELD prepared a paper on ‘Ways for Indigenous Peoples' groups to advance adaptation concerns and solutions through international fora'.

FIELD will be attending the next session of the international climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland, December 1-12. Together with other partners, we will be organising a capacity building workshop.

During the last week of October, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) convened an open-ended consultation on the relationship between climate change and human rights in preparation of an OHCHR study on this subject due to be considered by the Human Rights Council at its tenth session in March 2009.

FIELD has received a US$150,000 grant from the US-based Christensen Fund to strengthen the ability of Pacific Island countries to negotiate international legal regimes on biodiversity and climate change. The 2008-2010 project will focus on Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.