What our members are doing on climate change

Climate change is high on the international agenda these days. During the UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn (1 - 12 June) politicians, experts and activists aim to make progress in the preparation of a Post-2012 Climate Change Agreement. Obviously, the toughest task remains to find a compromise between industrialized countries, emerging economies and the developing world.

Within our diverse Euforic network several of our members are very active in the field of climate change. This is a good opportunity to present an overview of their activities.

Advocacy on climate change aims to influence the ongoing climate change negotiations on the regional and global level. Organisations involved wish to influence policy processes in a strategic way and make sure that the interests of the developing world are heard.






CIDSE is mainly engaged in the campaigning activities towards climate justice and a comprehensive new Climate Change Agreement. During the Bonn Climate Change Talks the network presents its report on the importance of adaptation technology for the Post-2012 Climate Agreement and - amongst other activities - organizes a video conference between Southern experts and conference participants on the issue of disaster risk reduction and adaptation.

APRODEVs Working Group on Climate Change and Concord are focusing on strategically influencing EU policies aiming to ensure that they are coherent with stated poverty eradication and development policies.

Research on climate change focuses on the impact of the phenomenon on the environment and livelihoods as well as on adaptation strategies to cope with these effects.





A research program of IDS is looking at cross-cutting issues between climate change and adaptation, policy, low carbon growth, building of networks and knowledge sharing as well as at training, teaching and mentoring. During the Bonn conference IDS organizes a panel discussion on 'Strengthening knowledge sharing on climate change adaptation in Africa'.

Also the Danish Development Research Network (DDRN) prioritizes climate change in its research. As well as the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) whose research activities focus on the issue of climate change from a number of different perspectives ranging from security and international politics to trade, development, and livelihood.

ISS looks at the effects of climate change on resources, the environment and livelihoods. And ODIs research is trying to identify how increasing knowledge of the science of climate change impacts can be used to understand potential implications for developing countries, particularly in social, economic and political terms. Secondly it looks at how to ensure that emerging climate change mitigation and adaptation policies work for the poor.

Training courses provide services for policy makers to increase their knowledge on climate change and the international policy processes and negotiations.




DIPLO, the training institute for diplomacy, recognizes the importance of climate change negotiations on the global and regional level and developed a training course for diplomats and government officials involved in climate change policy processes.

Latest news, research and policy documents on Climate Change and related topics are provided by several Euforic members:

• EADI - Information portal on climate change and energy
  
• ECDPM - Newsfeed on climate change and development
  
• IPS - News alert on climate change
  
• ILEIA - Dossier on climate change, rural development and agriculture
  

Policy perspectives are given by the public institutions among our membership.




FINNIDA focuses on the Clean Development Mechanism and its political dimension as well as on the nexus between gender and climate change.

The Annual General Meeting which Euforic organizes alongside the meeting of EADIs Information Management Working Group takes place in Copenhagen from the 10 - 12 June. The meeting will shed light on the challenges of climate change and communication. See Mike Shanahan (IIED) talk about this issue:

Click To Play

by Martin Behrens

See also Euforic newsfeeds on climate change; information/knowledge, and from the 2009 annual workshop

Civil-military relations in peace operations: the Danish experience

It is common sense that armed conflicts can not be overcome by military means alone. There is the need to find ways to combine civil and military instruments in peace operations. However concepts to approaches of civil-military cooperation are diverse and common language or definitions to understand them need to be found.

A Synthesis Report of the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) combines the work of DIIS and partner organisations looking at civil-military engagement within Danish missions in Iraq (see separate study) and Afghanistan (see separate study). The report looks at the coherence challenge within and between Danish institutions involved, harmonization efforts with other international players, as well as at the alignment with local and national actors.

It recommends to increase sharing of analyses, lessons-learned and the development of common guidelines for civil-military relations, including standards for civil-military monitoring and evaluations. With regard to the host nation and local level the challenge remains to use local knowledge effectively. Additionally the linkages between national and regional levels need more attention. Furthermore understanding local perceptions of security and the protection of the population need higher priority. The report also makes very specific recommendations regarding the Danish institutional set-up and policy framework.

The synthesis report is part of DIIS research on 'Civil-Military Relations within International Peace Operations' with publications also concerning other European countries. See also for example: 'Integrated National Approaches to International Operations. The cases of Denmark, UK and the Netherlands'.

by Martin Behrens

See the Euforic newsfeed and dossier on peace and security

As well as ICCO on Democratization and Peacebuilding

Euforic goes Nordic

In December 2008, Euforic's Chris Addison contributed to several awareness and training activities held in Copenhagen and Oslo in December 2008.

He reported on the meeting facilitated by the Danish Development Research Network on the evaluation of research communications in early December (on communication M&E and communication success).

He also worked with the Danish Institute of International studies (already a euforic member) to establish their diis.blip.tv channel and report on their migration and climate change seminar. A series of sessions with DIIS researchers established their own virtual research desks, blogs and search engines.

A morning session at the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies covered an introduction to recording meetings on Blip.tv, the web2 high street tools and building a web presence rather than a site. One day at Norad included briefings to over 30 staff and work with individual teams on relevant tools and approaches to communicate, store and retrieve development related information.

Certified organics as institutional vehicle of sustainable development

During the first session of the EADI Environment and Development Working Group on the EADI General Conference 2008, Henrik Egelyng from the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presented a paper on the strengths and weaknesses of Certified Organics as a governance instrument to promote sustainable agriculture globally.

Firstly, it is peculiar that Europe and the USA pull 97% of revenue from organic agriculture. Africa has very little certified organic agriculture, while Europe has a lot. Although African farmers use little pesticides, and farm with very little carbon emissions, the reason for this North-South divide can be seen in the lack of certification. Southern smallholders face weaker options than farmers in the North, because their national economies cannot financially support certification.

Only recently have the "the giants moved to be organic". Brazil and China developed national level policies to promote and facilitate certified organic agriculture. Organic food is only produced for the export market, where Walmart is one of the major driving forces.

In his conclusions, Egelyng argued that organic certification is a success story in so far that the global consumer movement reacted more directly to governance failures than citizens did. However, the trade-off is that governments now tend to lean back, because "the market regulates it". Market driven organic agriculture may be unable to change global agriculture towards higher overall levels of sustainability.

by Birthe Paul

See Euforic newsfeeds on agriculture and environment.

Subscribe to DIIS newsfeed.

Read more stories from the conference and visit the conference blog.

Danish Institute for Development Studies joins Euforic

The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), based in Copenhagen, has decided to join Euforic.

DIIS is an independent research institute engaged in various research areas, such as trade and development, politics and governance, migration, and foreign relations.

The Institute draws up reports and analyses and follows developments in international affairs continuously in order to assess the security and foreign policy situation of Denmark, e.g. aspects of relevance with regard to development policy. DIIS communicates research findings and analysis, and provides a series of information services. The Institute supports the development of research capacity in developing countries and fosters contacts between Danish and international research environments.

Together with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), DIIS constitute the Danish Centre for International Studies and Human Rights (DCISM).

See Euforic newsfeeds on research, DIIS and Denmark, plus dossiers on research and Denmark