"Briefly, it is not only their fellow human beings that the
beloved of God must treat with mercy and compassion, rather
must they show forth the utmost loving-kindness to every
living creature. For in all physical respects, and where the
animal spirit is concerned, the selfsame feelings are shared
by animal and man. Man hath not grasped this truth, however,
and he believeth that physical sensations are confined to
human beings, wherefore he is unjust to the animals, and
cruel. And yet in truth, what difference is there when it
cometh to physical sensations? The feelings are one and the
same, whether ye inflict pain on man or on beast. There is no
difference here whatever. And indeed ye do worse to harm an
animal, for man hath a language, he can lodge a complaint, he
can cry out and moan; if injured he can have recourse to the
authorities and these will protect him from his aggressor. But
the hapless beast is mute, able neither to express his hurt
nor take its case to the authorities. If a man inflict a
thousand ills upon a beast, it can neither ward him off with
speech nor hale him into court. Therefore it is essential that
ye show forth the utmost consideration to the animal, and that
ye be even kinder to him than to your fellow-man."
'Abdu'l-Bahá. Selections from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
NEWS FROM THE EDITOR
Friends, the spring newsletter is here with information about:
The 7th Annual IEF Conference, A United Nations Convention on
Climate Change in India, On-line courses in climatology, A
consultancy opportunity in Honduras A non-Bahá¹í-organized
conference on sustainable resources. New members Please send us
contributions about environmental issues in your country which
may be published in future issues of LEAVES! I hope that you
will enjoy this issue of LEAVES and remain with warmest
greetings.
- Dr. Bettina Moser (for the LEAVES team)
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
"TO BUILD THE WORLD ANEW: FOSTERING A BAHÁ'Í APPROACH TO
EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT"
Announcing the 7th Annual Conference of the International
Environment Forum (To be held in association with the Bahá'í
Conference on Social and Economic Development for the Americas
and the pre-Conference Bahá'í Development Seminar for
experienced practitioners)
Where: Orlando, Florida, USA
When: 17-21 December 2003
"'To build anew the whole world' is the claim and challenge of
His Message... [T]his Revelation...[is] designed to carry
humanity forward into a world civilization the splendours of
which can as yet be scarcely imagined."
(Universal House of Justice: Kitáb-i-Aqdas ,
Introduction, Pages: 1-2,)
"Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in,
and center your deliberations on its exigencies and
requirements."
(Bahá'u'lláh: Gleanings, Page 213)
Inspired by Bahá'u'lláh's vision for a prosperous and enduring
world civilization, and motivated by His call to be anxiously
concerned with the needs of this day, Bahá'ís worldwide are
striving to apply the Bahá'í teachings to the ills facing
humanity, in partnership with like-minded individuals and
organizations.
Since the 1992 Earth Summit, "sustainable development" has
become the term used to describe the process of addressing the
world¹s challenges holistically by integrating environmental,
economic and social goals. Toward that end, beginning in 2005,
the UN will launch the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable
Development.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the U.S. has
set in motion an effort in its community to raise awareness of
the connections between the Bahá'í teachings and sustainable
development and to inspire actions accordingly. The
International Environment Forum is committed to helping with
that process and will devote all its sessions at this conference
to that end.
WATCH FOR additional information, coming soon, on the web pages
of the International Environment Forum
(www.bcca.org/ief) and the Bahá'í
Conference
on Social and Economic Development for the Americas
(www.rabbanitrust.org). If interested in helping with the
program, contact the IEF Conference Committee c/o Peter Adriance
at padriance@usbnc.org.
NEWS FROM INDIA
CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE. CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES,
EIGHTH SESSION (COP 8)
SUMMARY OF EVENTS
(Edited from a contribution by Dr. Shakti Prakash, IEF
member, India).
COP 8: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was made fully
operational with adoption of Delhi Ministerial Declaration on
climate change and sustainable development.
The eighth Session of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC; http://unfccc.int/)
Conference of the Parties, COP 8, was held in Delhi, the capital
city of India, from 23rd October to 1st November 2002. There
were around 5000 participants from around 170 countries and from
several organisations committed to the cause of climate change
and sustainable development. Making CDM fully operational was
the most striking accomplishment during COP 8, adopting the
Delhi Ministerial Declaration on Climate and Sustainable
Development.
From the very outset of COP 8, battle lines were drawn between
developed and developing nations over issues relating to finance
and developing country commitments. Despite numerous sessions
into the morning hours, parties remained deadlocked on Article
2.3 (adverse effects of policies and measures), on providing
special guidance to the GEF Special Climate Change Fund, and on
Canada's Clean Energy proposal to allow special allowances for
hydro, natural gas and other clean energy exports. All three
issues were referred for consideration at COP-9. Tensions were
highest in meetings of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation
(SBI) where Parties accused SBI Chair, Raul Estrada-Oyuela
(Argentina), of using strong-arm tactics and failing to
accurately represent differing opinions in the SBI's reports.
But not all was a failure at COP 8. Parties did manage to agree
on guidance to the Least Developed Countries Fund; the rules and
procedures for the CDM; and, after three years of negotiations,
guidelines for reporting and reviewing information under
Articles 5, 7 and 8 (including registries).
Other serious deliberations made during various negotiations
and reported in Delhi declaration were:
-- Stress on effective action on all international commitments
made under UNFCCC.
-- More emphasis on the faster implementation of mitigation and
adaptation measures to combat and prevent the ongoing and future
climate change
-- Effective promotion of innovative and less polluting energy
technologies through effective research & development
(R&D), both at intra- country as well as inter-country
collaborative R&D.
-- Promotion of renewable energy technologies
-- Effective technology transfer for the reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions in main economic sectors.
-- More emphasis for more work on reporting of GHG emissions
data for both, annex1 and non-annex 1 parties.
-- Promotion of public awareness, education and training on
different issues, especially related to R&D and
implementation aspects of mitigation and adaptation measures.
-- Persuasion of more developed countries such as Russia (which
has very recently ratified) and USA to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
-- Public participation was a dominant theme at COP 8. The US
delegation was the most vocal in calling for greater access by
observers and parties to UNFCCC meetings and the need to
eliminate arbitrary seating limits. The US particularly targeted
the public participation procedures developed by the CDM
Executive Board and the UNFCCC Secretariat. Partly in response
to such criticism, the CDM Executive Board has agreed to meet
with Parties, business and NGOs during the Subsidiary Body
meetings and the Conference/Meeting of the Parties.
During a meeting with business representatives, UNFCCC
Executive Secretary Joke Waller-Hunter indicated that the
Secretariat is planning to place workshops and meeting
announcements on the UNFCCC web site and circulate notices to
interested parties. Conclusions on effective participation in
the UNFCCC process were adopted by SBI (FCCC/SBI/2002/L.13).
The UNFCCC web site (http://unfccc.int/)
provides more information on the COP 8 report, the Delhi
Declaration and COP 8 decisions.
Additional interesting links include:
http://www.envfor.nic.in/cc/
(Govt. of India web page on climate change and COP 8;
information on NGO and side events during COP8)
http://www.cdmwatch.org/index.php
http://www.weathervane.rff.org/features/feature048.html
(informative article about CDM from the Resources for the Future
(RFF).
http://www.wri.org/cdm/
(Climate and atmosphere - Climate change and energy. Clean
Development Mechanism)
http://www.teriin.org/climate/cdm.htm
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/tiempo/floor0/recent/issue28/t28a3.htm
(Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary, Tiempo - Issue 28)
http://www.enda.sn/energie/cdm.htm
(Should African positions change after the Kyoto Protocol(1)?
...)
http://www.uccee.org/CDM/
(Clean Development Mechanism in Africa)
http://www.mct.gov.br/clima/ingles/quioto/mdl.htm
(Brazilian Climate Change Forum.)
http://www.bellona.no/en/energy/fossil/wp_1-2000/17077.html
(The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows industrialized
countries to finance projects in developing countries and to
receive credit for emission reduction. ...)
http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/politics/reports/Cleandev.pdf
Interested IEF members may contact IEF for a list of additional
links (too numerous to publish in this newsletter).
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