bali

Priests and vicars have long demonstrated a penchant for biodiversity. There have been missionaries in remote places who have built up and preserved beautiful collections of butterflies, plants etc. which eventually found their way into the great natural history museums of the world.  The Rev. Gilbert White (1720-93) was the classic 18th century English clergyman-naturalist. Over many years he made observations of the plants and creatures he saw and he pulled the strands together in a widely-read book, 'The Natural History of Selborne'.  In a reflective letter to a colleague in 1768 he wrote, "It is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany: All nature is so full that that district produces the greatest variety which is the most examined". 

You may be surprised to know that Indonesia has emerged as the world's third largest emitter of carbon, following the U.S. and China.  This is primarily because of land-based emissions from peatland degradation, forest fires and deforestation, complemented by some of the fastest growing energy-based emissions.  In addition, as an archipelago of 17,000 islands and a significant agricultural population, its coastal urban population and farming-dependent rural economy are highly vulnerable to climate change.

For these reasons, the World Bank has been actively supporting a range of partnerships on mitigation and adaptation, including:

 The World Wildlife Fund recently announced a new report that documents deforestation on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.  WWF partnered with Hokkaido University and Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH on the full report, (pdf), which details the impact of converting carbon-rich swampy peatlands into pulpwood and palm oil plantations.

This is an exciting time to be working on climate change, especially in the Bank.

Various conclusive reports and developments in 2007 (the 4th IPCC report, the Nobel Peace Prize, etc) placed the challenge of climate change firmly in the consciousness of the development community. Following on this, the Climate talks in Bali (December 3-14, 2007) confirmed the roadmap for a global effort at addressing the climate challenge, with an agreement on process that included all key players, notably the USA, in whatever emissions control regime was determined as appropriate after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This regime will be largely finalized, hopefully, by December 2009.