change

Climate change poses a dramatic threat to the world’s migratory species, altering or reducing habitats and forcing some species to change or even abandon long-standing migration routes, according to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Climate change must be taken as seriously as the issues that have traditionally monopolized first-order political attention such as conflict, poverty and the proliferation of deadly weapons, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a United Nations conference on the issue in Nairobi today.

Progress has been made on a number of issues at a United Nations conference in Nairobi aimed at forging responses to global warming, including efforts to promote projects in developing countries that will help people adapt to threats posed by the phenomenon, the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said today.

Climate change negotiations at a United Nations conference in Nairobi are progressing toward decisions on key issues that include adaptation, financial mechanisms, deforestation, technology transfer and capacity building, officials there said today.

With a major United Nations conference on climate change underway in Nairobi, Kenya, amid new ominous reports on the global dangers involved, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is calling for urgent action now in both the preventive and adaptive fields before it is too late.

A campaign to plant a billion trees within a year was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, today in a bid to encourage all sectors of society, from concerned citizens to philanthropic corporations, to take small but practical steps to combat what is probably the key challenge of the 21st century.

Climate change will directly affect future food availability and compound the difficulties of feeding the world’s rapidly growing population, a United Nations conference in Kenya on the phenomenon has been warned.

Kenyan Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana opened the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi today with a warning that climate change could endanger whatever gains have been made against poverty. He urged countries to work together to ensure that real action is achieved on the issue of adaptation to climate change.

Increased international assistance will be needed to support efforts by African countries to cope with the effects of climate change, including loss of infrastructure, a decline in food production, and the degradation of wildlife habitat, says a United Nations report released today on the eve of a global meeting in Nairobi on the issue.

With the growing number of ratifications of major environmental agreements suggesting that more countries are committed to addressing global ecological issues, the true test remains implementation and enforcement, especially with regard to greenhouse gases, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned today.