La première réunion du conseil du Fonds vert, mécanisme en construction pour aider financièrement les pays en développement à faire face aux impacts du changement climatique, aura lieu fin août à Genève (Suisse), a annoncé jeudi le secrétariat par intérim du Fonds.

Cette réunion, prévue initialement au printemps, avait été repoussée en raison de retards dans la désignation des 24 membres du conseil. Elle aura finalement lieu du 23 au 25 août, a indiqué le secrétariat dans un communiqué.

Les pays développés se sont engagés à acheminer, à partir de 2020, 100 milliards de dollars par an vers les pays les plus vulnérables pour les aider à faire face au changement climatique.

Le Fonds vert pour le climat est l'un des mécanismes devant permettre le transfert financier même si, en l'absence de sources de financement très identifiées, il est régulièrement qualifié de coquille vide par les ONG.

Ce Fonds a été formellement établi lors de la dernière conférence de l'ONU sur le climat, fin 2011 à Durban, en Afrique du Sud.

L'une des premières tâches assignée cette année au conseil du Fonds vert est de sélectionner le pays hôte du nouvel organisme, en vue d'une désignation formelle lors de la prochaine conférence sur le climat, en fin d'année au Qatar.

Six pays ont fait acte de candidature: Allemagne, Mexique, Namibie, Pologne, Corée du Sud et Suisse.

(©AFP / 02 août 2012 16h12) 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Location: Columbia University, Morningside Campus, Low Memorial Library, The Rotunda

Contact: For further information regarding this event, please contact Somayya Ali, Center for Climate Systems Research, by sending email to sa2619@columbia.edu or by calling 212-678-5626.

Speakers: Jeffrey Sachs (Earth Institute), Adam Freed (City of New York), Helena Molin Valdes (UNISDR), Henrietta Elisabeth Thompson (Rio+20), Hon. Saber H. Chowdhury (MP, Govt. of Bangladesh), H.E. Mr. Jun Yamazaki (Japanese Mission to the UN), and John Mutter (Earth Institute), among others.

The Earth Institute Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory present "From Sendai to Rio - Cultivating a Disaster-Resilient Society for Sustainable Development."

This dialogue is organized to discuss the significance of building climate and disaster resilience in coastal cities. It will feature experts from UN agencies, the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), Columbia University, Japan, Bangladesh and New York City to share their knowledge and experience in the issue and discuss how these could influence the public and policy understanding on sustainable development, especially in the urban context. The dialogue will also serve as a platform to identify research questions and learning among cities from different regions in implementing disaster risk reduction initiatives at the local level.

Open to the public. Registration is required.

Reception to follow. 

For a tentative agenda, click here: 

For more information on UCCRN visit www.uccrn.org

For more information on UNISDR visit www.unisdr.org

For more information on the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations visit www.un/emb-japan.go.jp

 Directions and Map for Low Library Rotunda 

For event flyer, click here: 

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Achieving effective outcomes in local public administration has become increasingly challenging due to ever more complex and unpredictable environment in which governments operate, often with insufficient resources. The focus of  the eleventh annual session of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) will be on local government strategies for more results-oriented public governance.

The goal of this session is to assist stakeholders developing public service capacity building for local-level development, as well as increase transparency, accountability and citizens’ engagement.  In the second year of its multi-year agenda of “Public Governance for Results”, the theme of this session  is “Local public governance and administration for results”. It will be held from 16-20 April 2012.

Intergovernmental Governance and Regimes

What must be met in order to make the most of representative democracy at the local level? A report by Jan Ziekow, a member of CEPA, indicates that “the position of representative democracy at the local level is, in this respect, more difficult than representation at the national level. At such higher levels, interconnections and interdependencies are not as closely knit as for local representatives. The status given to representative democracy at the local level in a particular national context depends very much on culture, tradition, values, social structure, and legal and administration systems and thus it varies greatly.”

The report suggests that a careful balance of the competencies of local authorities and administrations together with a carefully balanced decoupling of local councils from state institutions grants legitimacy, financial power and autonomous self-government to municipalities. It also suggests that a representative democracy that relies solely on institutions legitimized by elections is under constant pressure of proving its legitimacy.

Public Service Capacity Building for Local-level Development

A case study of the Singapore Public Service reveals that “Singapore faced dire economic challenges at its birth as an independent State. The city-State lacked a hinterland it could exploit, and its historical role as an entrepôt was being threatened by its neighbours’ nationalistic economic policies. The country needed to create jobs. Given those challenges, it is understandable that the foremost priority of the Singapore Public Service was to pursue economic growth for the nation.

The Public Service indubitably achieved its mission. Per capita income trebled between 1965 and 1977. By the mid-1970s, the problem of high unemployment had transformed into the challenge of full employment. Singapore is, today, globally renowned for being a wealthy city-State with an excellent public education system, efficient public transport, safe streets and a highly capable and honest bureaucracy.”

Singapore managed to do this by basing their approach to governance on six principles: pragmatism, the avoidance of welfarism, constant re-evaluation, holistic approach to government, honesty, and development of human capital in the public sector.

Transparency, Accountability, and Citizens’ Engagement

Economics is no longer the sole factor to be considered in measuring progress towards development: “This twenty-first century has seen something that is genuinely new: the globalization of values. There is a growing awareness that the problems are global and that on issues such as drinking water, environment, non-renewable resources, endemic diseases, climate change, biotechnologies and health and food security, all countries are affected and the solutions require new forms of worldwide coordination,” argues Ms. Oyhanarte in her report.

“Major development assistance decisions are still based primarily on macroeconomics, but national per capita production is no longer the sole factor to be considered in measuring progress towards development.”

Citizen’s engagement – orderly, concerted action by individuals and organizations – is considered to be one of the best local development management tools. However, to be effective, transparency and access to information have to be in place.

The knowledge of good practices in transparency and citizen’s engagement can be used as a model for the development of joint management and multi-stakeholder partnerships. This creates a network of stakeholders and has a positive impact on the drafting of a public agenda that gives priority to the MDG’s post 2015.