" "INVESTORSNEED TO UNDERSTAND THE BARRIERS IN DEALING IN RURAL AFRICASOUTH AFRICA SHOWCASE027Below: Adam Simcock,CEO, Carbon Check (Pty)Ltd Main Image: solar-driven street lightingand investors need to understand the barriers indealing in rural Africa. We at Carbon Check havepositioned ourselves well with regard to this. We have employed key staff with huge worldwide CDM experience and are training local staff in order to qualify within the framework of the UNFCCC -Executive Boards accreditation standard. Africa also offers a competitive cost base however;capacity building needs further development togetherwith awareness campaigns, hand in hand with DNAs.These require funding and could be conductedtogether with foreign based Embassies, HighCommissions and trade offices throughout thecontinent. We look forward to a continuation of amarket based mechanism that is supportive of CDMand wish all delegates luck and hope for a successfuloutcome for all. nFor more information, please visit:www.carboncheck.co.za

" "A SECONDKYOTO PERIODWITH A VERY LIMITED NUMBEROF PARTIES PARTICIPATING IS CLEARLY INSUFFICIENT TOSOLVE THE PROBLEM OFGLOBAL WARMINGlimate action is more urgent then ever.Energy-related CO2 emissions reached arecord high of 30.6 gigatonnes in 2010,according to the International EnergyAgency (IEA). The IEA also warned that the window ofopportunity for reducing emissions is closing since asmuch of 80 per cent of projected emissions from thepower sector in 2020 are already locked in.Another study published in Scienceshows that overthe last three decades climate change has resulted incuts to global wheat and corn output by as much as theentire annual corn crop of Mexico or the wheat crop ofFrance, and has driven up food prices by 20 per centon average. In the US the wheat harvest is threatenedby droughts and extreme heat, Japan had the wettestAugust ever, central regions in China have suffered theworst drought for 50 years, the Horn of Africa, India.the list continues. According to the meteorologicalreports it has been yet another record-breakingsummer when it comes to "global weirding" -increasingly extreme and unstable weather caused byglobal warming. A single weather event can not beattributed to global warming. But the point is thatthese are not single events. On the contrary: they followa pattern which scientists have been pointing to foryears: increasingly extreme temperatures and weatherevents caused by a general heating of the atmosphere. And this is why it is so crucial that progress is made atthe COP in Durban. The Copenhagen Accord andCancun Agreements took us an important step forward.Today, 90 countries in the developed and developingworlds alike have set domestic targets for reducing orrestricting their emissions. Even if these pledges are notyet enough to keep global warming below the agreedceiling of 2°C above the pre-industrial temperature, theyare - during a severe economic downturn - no smallachievement. In Durban we must further develop thiscommon toolbox. We must, for instance, bring newinstitutions like the Green Climate Fund and theTechnology Mechanism into existence in the real world,not just on the printed pages of UN documents. The process to design the Green Climate Fund by theTransitional Committee was launched at the end ofApril. We look forward to working together with ourpartners to design a 21st century financing instrumentthat can catalyse investments in adaptation, inprotecting forests and in other forms of climate changemitigation and low-carbon development. As the world'spopulation continues to grow, more than a billion morepeople will enter the middle class by 2050. Again, thisis to be welcomed. But, the fact is that, if they use theproduction technology and adopt the consumptionpatterns that prevail in industrialised countries today,we would need at least two and a half planets to meetmankind's demands. Building a ''green growth'' model, adoptingsustainable patterns of consumption and production,and improving energy access are the obvious answersto this challenge. The Rio+20 conference in 2012 willbe an important opportunity to accelerate this process.The European Union acknowledges that ever moreefforts are needed and already advocates adding someimportant new tools to the global climate toolbox, suchas setting up new sectoral carbon market mechanismsand tackling international aviation and maritimeemissions. The EU has been pioneering emissionstrading for several years now and our positiveexperiences make us strongly believe in carbonmarkets as one of the main instruments to cut globalemissions at least cost for our economies. And the EUis no longer alone with this; big players across theworld, like New Zealand, Australia, California, SouthA ROADMAPFOR GLOBALCONSENSUS028GLOBAL VOICESCONNIE HEDEGAARD, EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR CLIMATE ACTIONC