1-13 December, 2008; Poznań, Poland. During the first two weeks of December, more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, including delegates from 180 countries, gathered in Poznań, Poland to discuss the most urgent challenges of climate change. It was during the 14th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Members of governmental and non-governmental institutions debated strategies for the mitigation of climate change impacts through the reduction greenhouse gasses emissions, analysed how to adapt to inevitable changes, and studied options to transfer modern coping technologies from developed to developing countries.

Participants focused on negotiating an effective international response to the anthropogenic causes of climate change, due to follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Negotiations were an effort to create an ambitious agreement that would be signed, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, by all Parties of the Convention at the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties to be held in Copenhagen, in December 2009. In Poznań, the. Parties also agreed that the first draft of a concrete negotiating text would be available at a UNFCCC gathering in Bonn in June of 2009.

As during last year’s UNFCCC Climate Conference in Bali, where IHDP convened two side events, the Programme was present in Poznań and took part in the discussions accompanying the negotiations.

Ms Barbara Solich, IHDP Communications Associate, disseminated IHDP publications to the climate change community and announced the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 that will take place in Bonn in April, 2009 , while two IHDP resident scholars represented the Programme in several side events. Water researcher John Manyitabot Takang, an IHDP resident scholar from Cameroon and Master’s student of the University of Cologne, took part in the side event organised by the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future. Entitled “An Actionable Guide: Investing in a Well-Prepared Society”, the event got full coverage by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB). Such coverage can be found here. For more information about the side event find here the text by John Maniytabot Takang.

The presence of IHDP representatives as well as the IHDP exhibition counter met with very positive feedback from the public. Scientists, policy-makers and NGO activists expressed their interest in IHDP’s activities and admiration of IHDP’s strong will to cooperate with a wide variety of stakeholders on the human dimensions of global environmental change. The most commonly held sentiment was that of IHDP filling a critical research gap in the global research agenda. The most frequently asked questions received focused on IHDP activities and cooperation/funding opportunities offered. For information on these issues, please visit the IHDP FAQs section. Additionally, there were many questions concerning the Open Meeting, its agenda and modes of participation, all to be found at https://www.openmeeting2009.org.

The participants of the Climate Change Conference expressed interest in IHDP publications, especially in the new Strategic Plan and the latest issue of the UPDATE magazine, “Mountain Regions: Laboratories for Adaptation”.

In Poznań, the finishing touches were put to the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund, with Parties agreeing that the Fund would be a legal entity granting direct access to developing countries. Progress was also made on a number of important ongoing issues that are particularly important for developing countries, including adaptation, finance, technology, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and disaster management.

A key event at the Conference was a ministerial round table on a shared vision of long-term cooperative action on climate change. Ministers gave a resounding commitment to achieving an ambitious and comprehensive deal in Copenhagen that can be ratified by all. The next major UNFCCC gathering will take place from 29 March to 8 April, 2009 in Bonn, Germany. The outcomes of the Poznań Conference include:

You can find some feedback from the IHDP resident scholars participating in the conference here.

Text by Barbara Solich