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The UN Committee on Climate Change’s thirteenth convention is being held in Bali and starts on Monday. The big issue this year seem to be getting a draft framework, or “roadmap” for the global approach to climate change so that it can in place by the end of the Kyoto Protocol evaluation period in 2012. Friends of the Earth is going to be posting pictures and blogging from the conference for live updates.

Friends of the Earth have made some strong statements to discourage the UNCCC to continue promoting biofuels (or “agrofuels”) as a major solution to climate change because of the ironic releasing of massive amounts of CO2 when forests are cleared in order to grow the leading biofuel crops:

“The demand for agrofuels mainly to fuel cars -mainly in over-consuming industrialized countries – is skyrocketing. Yet recent studies from around the world highlight that the agrofuels boom is having severe social and environmental impacts. [2] Forests are being cut down and Indigenous Peoples and forest dwelling communities are being displaced, often violently, from their territories to make way for agrofuels plantations run by multinational corporations that expropriate land and water resources.”

While you are checking out Friends of the Earth, take a look at their “The Big Ask” web-march. I really appreciate their creative, personal campaign strategy. One of my favorite videos was Martyn Williams who talks about what he and his wife have done to curb their emissions in comparison to what the UK government is proposing. Okay, and I really like that he calls it “Get your finger out“! Can you blame me?

Vanessa