New South Wales

By Jeppe Fischer, Photo by 350.org

The Philippines has been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan with at least four million people displaced. Haiyan has also had impact beyond the Philippines though, and in a different way, at the UN climate change summit in Warsaw, Poland. Media coverage of the negotiations has been overshadowed by the typhoon, and The Verb explores the impact.

Civil society organisations abandoned the COP19 climate change negotiations in Warsaw on mass. Members from Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Actionaid, Friends of the Earth, the International Trade Union Confederation (statement) and 350.org all started leaving the conference at 2pm. This is an unprecedented action, the first time several major civil society groups have staged a mass walkout.

Friends of the Earth International highlighted that the Warsaw Climate Change negotiations were failing, with Tension high in Warsaw talks as G77+China walk out. The role of Australia and reduced ambition of Japan  have been widely mentioned. Australia and Canada are seen as the major wreckers, but there has been substantial intransigence from much of the developed world to progressing the negotiations forward on finance, ambition, and a loss and damage mechanism. Poland's Coal Summit has shown the fossil fuel corporatism entwined in this COP with widespread dismay at the coal powered negotiations of COP19 and at UNFCCC official Christiania Figueres who gave the keynote speech at the coal summit 

Related: Democracy Now: "Nature Does Not Negotiate": Environmentalists Walk Out of U.N. Climate Summit in Warsaw | "Polluters Talk, We Walk": Civil Society Groups Abandon Warsaw Talks over Inaction on Global Warming | "We Have to Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis
Analysis: The Warsaw walkout and the Climate Movement

Sydney and NSW Aboriginal rights events for your diary

WGAR events postings for each State and Territory: http://indymedia.org.au/2013/01/03/about-wgar-news-wgar-events-postings

Click on the links for details of the events ...

Event: Wed 20 November 2013: Wodonga, Vic (Near border with NSW)
Indigenous Use of Fire forum
"This is a rare opportunity to learn about how fire was
used by the first Australians to shape the environment
and how Traditional Knowledge could be applied to
current management practices. Forum speakers include

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have rallied or marched for climate action across Australia in a demonstration that a significant number of people view climate change as a serious issue requiring substantive action from all levels of Government, including the Federal Government lead by cinservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The rallies were organised by GetUp, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Australian Conservation Foundation.