Can COP17 deliver on its promises?
MEDIA OPPORTUNITY NOTICE
ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL
Contact: (In Durban) Natalie Curtis +44 (0)7931787025 or Natalie.Curtis@actionaid.org or Ssanyu Kalibbala +27 (0)788648506 or Ssanyu.kalibbala@actionaid.org or Chris Coxon +32 (0) 488 878 381 or chris.coxon@actionaid.org
CAN COP17 DELIVER ITS PROMISES?
ActionAid will be at the COP17 Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa from 26 Nov – 10 Dec and available for:
- Real-time analysis and interviews from inside the summit.
- Comment on the Kyoto Protocol and whether it will hold negotiations hostage.
- Analysis on how climate cash can and must be raised even during a financial crisis.
- Briefings on the false solutions rich countries are plugging to cut carbon emissions and their impact on the poor.
- Interviews on the link between climate change and hunger.
- High impact photo and filming opportunities.
- Real-life stories, photos and footage from around the world.
- Face to face interviews with farmers and community leaders from climate affected countries, including those blocked from summit talks.
REPORTS AVAILABLE:
Don’t COP Out: Compensation for Climate Chaos:
As the financial crisis deepens, ActionAid explains how governments can afford to tackle climate change and why it’s cheaper to do so now, than pay for the fall out. New and innovative sources of finance like a transaction tax on banks or a tax on planes or shipping can be used to ensure the Green Climate Fund does not remain an empty vault.
No False Solutions!: (Weds 7 Dec)
As the World Bank launches its new Investment Fund, Actionaid will release No False Solutions - a briefing, exposing the dubious market-based initiatives the World Bank and a shadowy army of private sector and industry-body lobbyists, consultants and commodity speculators are promoting to ‘offset’ rich countries’ carbon emissions. The briefing casts a particular eye on soil carbon markets and biofuels - false solutions, fraught with multiple social and environmental risks. (Embargoed until 7 Dec 00:01GMT).
EXPERTS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW:
- Harjeet Singh is ActionAid’s International Climate Justice Coordinator. He is based in New Delhi, India and supports countries to understand, assess, and address the impacts of climate change on the poor. He has conducted training on emergency response, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in over 20 countries for government and non-government agencies and represented ActionAid in various international forums. Prior to this, Harjeet led the Tsunami Response Programme in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for ActionAid India. Harjeet began his professional career as a management graduate with a short stint in the private sector, but soon shifted his interests. Harjeet speaks English and Hindi and is available for interviews in Durban from 27 November – 10 December.
- Ilana Solomon is a Senior Policy Analyst with ActionAid USA. Since 2007, Ilana has advocated for the creation of a new equitable and effective multilateral fund for climate change and for public finance for adaptation in developing countries. Ilana has authored and co-authored numerous articles and reports focused on principles for equitable and effective adaptation funding, on the need for a new global climate fund, and on proposals for how to generate substantial public finance for climate change. Ilana has participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings since 2007and is the developed country observer to the World Bank Pilot Program on Climate Resilience (PPCR). Before joining ActionAid, Ilana worked with the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta, Georgia, working on program development with women refugees. Ilana speaks English and is available for interview in Durban from 28 Nov – 9 Dec.
- Tanjir Hossain works in the Climate Justice Unit for ActionAid Bangladesh, where he helps communities to prepare, cope and adapt in the face of climate related disasters. Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to the affects of climate change and Tanjir has witnessed climate induced suffering on a wide scale particularly in villages where he has found women and children to be the hardest hit. Tanjir speaks English and Bengali and is available for interview in Durban from 28 Nov – 9 Dec.
- Celso Marcatto is an agronomist and ActionAid’s Global Food Programme Coordinator. He believes the best way to tackle climate change is to climate proof agriculture and is responsible for developing Actionaid’s climate resilient sustainable agriculture initiatives - an area he has more than 20 years of experience working in. Celso is from Brazil and has visited many regions in Latin America, Africa and Europe where he has witnessed the negative impact of climate change on smallholder farmers. Celso speaks Portuguese and English and is available for interview in Durban from Dec 1 – Dec 13.
- Henry Malumo is ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign coordinator in Africa. He specialises in food and agriculture, health and climate change. Malumo has first-hand experience working with African farmers across the continent and can talk about ActionAid’s innovative food projects, as well as its hunger free campaign in over 30 countries. Malumo speaks English and is available for interview in Durban from 28 Nov – 9 Dec.
For a full list of ActionAid spokespeople in Durban and across the world contact: Natalie.curtis@actionaid.org
PHOTO AND FILMING OPPORTUNITIES
Thurs 1 Dec: Launch of Rural Women’s Assembly (1 – 5 Dec), University of Kwazulunatal, Durban
500 rural women from Southern Africa will gather to send a message to governments and policy makers at COP17 that their voices must not be shut out of the negotiations. Climate change is a threat to the lives and livelihoods of rural communities all over Southern Africa who feel the brunt of rising temperatures and erratic and extreme weather. Yet rural women - who are inextricably tied to their dependence on land - will be locked out of COP17. Good opportunity to gather the real-life stories of those on the front line of climate change and hear their arguments on how to adapt their land, as well as calls for land redistribution and government subsidies for smallholder farmers.
Sat 3 Dec: Global Day of Action march,
20,000 people will march from the Curry Fountain to the International Convention Centre (ICC). ActionAid will be marching with giant, three-metre-wide balloons carrying the message “Let’s fight climate change and hunger together”. Following the march, protestors will move to the North Beach for an evening concert.
Sun 4 Dec: Wangari Maathai vigil, 7-9 pm
Beautiful evening vigil in remembrance of Nobel Prize winning activist Wangari Maathai.
Mon 5 Dec: Giant and colourful projection, next to summit centre (tbc)
A spin on the iconic image of the ‘evolution of man’, this giant projection will depict the ‘devolution of rural women’, as carbon emissions from rich countries weigh them down, destroying their harvest and stealing their homes and livelihoods
Weds 7 Dec: Actionaid Aid/ Oxfam joint event on rural farmers (details tbc)
Fri 9 Dec: High impact photo opportunity (tbc)
Colourful reaction to the close of the summit.