Ramblings about Gender, climate change, Equity, community, culture

Zero poverty, zero emissions:  what does the final agreement offer to the poor and vulnerable countries?  Part 2 Tracy C. Kajumba,  After days and nights of negotiations, campaigns and lobbying, the COP21 conference has finally come to an end with consensus on the final agreement. Both Non government organisations and parties seemed to be happy that there is an agreement, which most commentators thought was better than the first draft which came out with many brackets. The UN secretary general Ban Ki moon in his remarks noted that, “The Paris Agreement is a monumental triumph for people and our planet. It sets the stage for progress in ending poverty, strengthening peace and ensuring a life of dignity and opportunity for all.” The French President Francois Hollande told the assembled delegates: “You’ve done it, reached an ambitious agreement, a binding agreement, a universal agreement. Never will I be able to express more gratitude to a conference. You can be proud to stand before your

Last week I attended the Development and Climate days adaptation conference for civil society organisations, which ran parallel to UN COP21 conference . The event brought together adaptation practitioners to discuss practical solutions and learning experiences. I found that participants were hopeful in the discussions, fronting issues of social and climate justice, with the expectation that COP 21 could mark a turning point in climate negotiations. The link between climate change, poverty and development for better resilience could not be over emphasized in the discussions. However, the draft agreement does not seem to have captured the expectations of CSOs as anticipated as yet. A session on eradicating poverty and decarbonising development in the climate crisis reviewed how the climate crisis jeopardises our ability to sustain poverty eradication beyond 2030 and highlighted how resilient low-carbon development can deliver the sustained, more equal and pro-poor growth necessary to er