Next Round of Climate Change Talks Underway in Thailand
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From the UN News Center:

The Secretary-General urged attendees to build on the momentum generated by the breakthrough in Bali, Indonesia, in last December's landmark UN Climate Change Conference, where 187 countries agreed on the so-called "Bali Roadmap" -- including bolstered action on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance -- to tackle global warming.

The Bangkok meeting is expected to lay out a work plan for the negotiations which will conclude in 2009 at a major summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mr. Ban has emphasized in the past that a successor pact must be ready for ratification three years before the Kyoto Protocol expires to allow countries to make it law in time.

It is also anticipated that this gathering -- attended by delegates from 163 nations -- will further efforts regarding emission reduction targets for developed countries.

Also speaking at the opening of the talks, the top UN climate change official pointed out that three months have already elapsed since the close of the Bali conference.

"This leaves us with around one and a half years -- a very short time-frame within which to complete negotiations on one of the most complex international agreements that history has ever seen," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

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July 31, 2008


Some Not-So-Bad Signs in Darfur
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One year ago today, members of the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of an unprecedented 27,000-strong joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan (known by its acronym, UNAMID). While some critics have chosen this anniversary to focus on the slow pace at which UNAMID has deployed, recent developments give reason to think about what has been accomplished and how the UN and international community can best follow up on these gains.

After another year of humanitarian crisis, sporadic outbreaks of violence, and a crippling lack of peace, one could reasonably ask what recent developments could signal a turn for the better in Darfur. Indeed, the most significant occurrence in the past two weeks is actually something that didn't happen. In the wake of the news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would hear evidence for the indictment of Sudanese President Bashir, many Darfur analysts feared that Khartoum's response would be to unleash a wave of coordinated military attacks. Fortunately, this has not happened. In fact, as Nicholas Kristof points out in his blog, "humanitarians have had just about their best week so far" in Darfur. This relative calm points to the likely marginalization of hardliners within Bashir's inner circle--a crucial prerequisite for peace.

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