Expelled from the United Nations: How the Executive Secretary Reacts to Solidarity with the Phillippines

By Maria Alejandra Escalante and Graham Thurston Hallett Before anything please watch this moving testament by Yeb Sano, head of the delegation of the Philippines. Four hours in, day one, COP19: Poland. Half a planet away, while the other half perishes with 20 years of inaction. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) […]

Press Release: Climate activists thrown out for solidarity with victims of typhoon Haiyan

12 NOVEMBER 2013 The UN climate talks opened on Monday in the backdrop of the devastating impacts of Typhoon Haiyan one of the strongest storms ever to hit landfall. Yeb Sano, climate commissioner for the Philippines made an electrifying and emotional appeal for action on climate. Delegates held an unprecedented 3 minute silence in solidarity, […]

LOSS AND DAMAGE MUST BE ADDRESSED NOW: WE DEMAND A STRONG MECHANISM

by Katie O’Brien & Maria Alejandra Escalante  What is Loss and Damage? In the climate negotiations, the focus is often on mitigation and adaptation, but these two alone cannot fully address the impacts of climate change. Some climate change impacts have already been locked in from historical emissions and many countries do not have the […]

COP19 Warsaw: The Big Fights, Red Lines and Initial Predictions

by Anna Odell and Maria Alejandra Escalante Thousands gather in Warsaw as typhoon Yolanda (internationally named typhoon Haiyan) ravages the Philippines, leaving up to 10,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and destroying entire communities and towns. This catastrophe, the largest typhoon in recorded history, cannot go unacknowledged, and those parties responsible for […]

Brazilian fractals

by Maria Alejandra Escalante “I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one. Gottfried Leibniz    Listening to political conversations about the past, the present and the future of Rio+20 has been a daily […]