Coastal Zone Network Blog

CoastGIS'09 will be hosted in Brazil

2007-11-29T14:51:00.000-08:00

The 9th edition of the CoastGIS ( GIS and Computer Mapping for Coastal Zone Management) will be realized in the city of Florianópolis (in Southern Brazil) on September 2009. For more information contact Débora de Freitas (freitas.debora@gmail.com). Further information will be available by the end of January 2008.

Climate policy should consider the needs of the poor

2007-04-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in Brussels on Friday that climate change is inevitable, adaptation to it is critical and that those who contributed least to the problem will suffer the most.

"Even if, by some miracle, we could stop emitting greenhouse gases today, we will still experience climate change in the next few decades, making adaptation unavoidable," says Richard Klein, coordinator of climate policy research at the Stockholm Environment Institute and a coordinating lead author of the IPCC.

"On the other hand, without any effort in mitigation we are likely to reach a level of climate change that makes adaptation impossible for some ecosystems, while for people it could involve very high social and economic costs."

One of the political dilemmas of climate policy is the fact that the costs and benefits of climate change are not distributed equally around the world. Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, points out that for some countries, particularly the poorest countries in Africa and the small island developing states, adaptation is more important than mitigation.

For countries such as China, India and Brazil, the combination of the two strategies is essential, says Huq, who is also a coordinating lead author of the latest IPCC report.

John Drexhage, director of climate change and energy at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and an expert reviewer of the IPCC report, agrees: "This report confirms a message we have been stating loud and clear for a few years now: namely that those least responsible for global warming - the poor, the indigenous communities - are the ones to be the most immediately and severely impacted by it. This is a core equity issue that must be addressed in the international negotiations."

Tom Downing, director of the Oxford office of the Stockholm Environment Institute and a lead author of the IPCC report, adds: "Many of these linkages are opportunities to promote sustainable development and alleviate poverty. We found relatively few examples where decision-makers made explicit, economic trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation."

The report from Working Group 2 of the Fourth Assessment of the IPCC was released in Brussels on Friday 5 April 2007. Working Group 3 will present its findings on 4 May 2007 in Bangkok and the final synthesis report will be released in November of this year.

Klein, Huq, Downing and Drexhage, and the three institutes they represent, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the International Institute for Environment and Development and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, have joined forces in addressing the challenge of climate change and development. As the Global Initiative on Climate Change (GICC), they provide knowledge to policymakers to ensure that climate change is seen as a development issue as well as an environment issue.

Contact details

Dr. Richard J.T. Klein

Stockholm Environment Institute

Stockholm, Sweden

richard.klein@sei.se

+46 8 6747054

Dr. Saleemul Huq

International Institute for Environment and Development

London, UK

saleemul.huq@iied.org

+44 20 73882117

Dr. Thomas E. Downing

Stockholm Environment Institute

Oxford, UK

tomdowning.sei@gmail.com

+44 1865 426316

Mr. John Drexhage

International Institute for Sustainable Development

Ottawa, Canada

jdrexhage@iisd.ca

+1 613 2389820

+1 613 2767794

(Source: International Institute for Environment and Development. http://www.iied.org/mediaroom/releases/070410CCPolicy.html. Last accessed: 16/04/2007)

[Conference] ICCE 2008

2007-03-06T20:21:00.001-08:00

31st International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE 2008)

Hamburg - 2nd Announcement and Final Call for Papers

Dear  Colleagues,

on behalf of the  Local Organising Committee of the 31st  International Conference on Coastal Engineering, it is my pleasure  to announce you the 2nd Bulletin and the Final Call for Papers. The  ICCE 2008 will be held in Hamburg / Germany  from Sunday, 31st August 2008 to Friday, 5th September 2008 at the Hamburg  Congress Centre CCH. The ICCE 2008 will be organised by the German Society  of Port Engineering and the German Coastal Engineering Research Council  under the auspices of the Coastal Engineering Research Council (CERC) of Coasts,  Ocean, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) of the American Society of Civil  Engineers (ASCE).

Papers are invited  on theory, measurement, analysis, modelling and practice for the following  conference topics:
Coastal  Processes
Coastal, Shore  and Estuarine Structures
Ports, Harbours  and Waterways
Coastal  Environment
Coastal  Risks
Coastal  Development
Practical papers  detailing the design, construction and performance of case study coastal  projects are encouraged.

Further details  concerning the conference are available on the conference  website:

http://icce2008.hamburg.baw.de

Prospective  authors are invited to submit papers dealing with the conference subjects or  related topics not later than July 15,  2007. Further instructions concerning the abstract submission  process can be found in the 2nd Bulletin which is available on the  conference website.

Dr.-Ing. Holger Schüttrumpf
Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau  (BAW)
Federal Waterways  Engineering and Research Institute Wedeler Landstr. 157
22559  Hamburg
Tel.:  (+49)-40-81908-332
Fax.:  (+49)-40-81908-373
E-Mail: schuettrumpf@hamburg.baw.de

Wecome

2006-11-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

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