This 6th issue of our Millennium Agreement "Controlling Climate Risks" newsletter. In this newsletter Soil and More tells us more about the projects on water in Ethiopia. Oxfam introduces the new international GROW campaign. And KNMI explains the DIDAH project.

The next newsletter will appear at the end of this year. Copy for this newsletter can be send to the secretariat.

Questionnaire about the future of climate adaptation to developing countries
We asked our Dutch partners to fill in a questionnaire about the future of climate adaptation to developing countries and the contribution from the Netherlands. The questionnaire comes at an important moment.
The COP negotiations will probably not be successful. Climate is not a priority for the Dutch government, the theme is included in the priorities water and food security. And at the end of this year, the Millennium Agreement is ending and it is not going to be continued. On the other hand, a few projects continue, like Partners for Resilience and a few agricultural and water projects.

We want to know your opinion on these developments. Is climate still an important topic in your organizations policy? Do you think adaptation is still a interesting topic to involve Dutch society and business to international collaboration?

The results will be presented at the conference, during the break. At the final partner meeting, December 15th, we will discuss the results.

The questionnaire (in dutch only) is sent by email. If you want to participate, please send us an email. 

5th Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries

Wednesday November 23th the 5th conference about adaptation to climate change in developing countries will take place in the Museum voor Communicatie, The Hague, The Netherlands.
The conference starts at 12.00 with workshops, organized by various organizations who will present their projects, for instance Partners for Resilience, KNMI and Soil and More. During the plenary session Bram Bregman (KNMI) and Maarten van Aalst (Director Red Cross Climate Centre and coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report) will present the IPCC special Report “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”. The final part is a debate on the Netherlands and The Great Green Wall of Africa. How can Dutch society contribute to the success of the Great Green Wall of Africa?
On this page you’ll find the provisional program, which is also the place for registration.

Final meeting December 15th

At the end of this year the Millenium Agreement is ending. At December 15th we organize a final partner meeting. In this meeting we will discuss the results of the questionnaire about the future of climate adaptation to developing countries. What are our the plans for the future?
The meeting starts at 15.00 in Utrecht. We will sent an invitation with the agenda mid November.

Soil and More : Composting project in Ethiopia

Soil & More and its local partner Farm Organics are currently in the process of setting up a composting facility in Ethiopia. The country faces a lot of environmental challenges, resulting directly or indirectly from human activities. A rapidly growing population, soil degradation and decreasing yields make the need for more sustainable farming practices obvious; especially in a country which depends to 90% on agriculture. Soil & More’s composting site is a social and ecological project, which aims to:

1. Improve fertility and structure of soils used for agricultural production
2. Re-direct local organic waste streams by using the organic matter for compost production
3. Provide year round employment at above average working conditions
4. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions through controlled microbial composting
5. Help farmers save irrigation water by improving the soil’s structure and thus its water holding capacity
6. Produce a substitute for increasingly expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides and decrease the farmers’ dependency on such inputs
7. Create a paradigm shift in current land management practices in Ethiopia 

 

Soil & More Ethiopia aims to also set up a training facility to raise awareness for worldwide challenges such as climate change, soil degradation and water scarcity, to name but a few. In a second step, a demonstration farm will be set up to train local farmers on matters related to organic agriculture, composting and responsible use of water as well as other scarce resources.

A first workshop was already given to some 60 local farm managers in the first week of October. Main objective of this training was – besides very practical compost making – to show how climate change, water scarcity and soil/food security are interlinked and how sustainable farming practices can help to tackle some of above mentioned challenges.

Oxfam Novib : GROW

Oxfam recently started a worldwide campaign for the next four years: GROW. It focuses on improving the world food system. Hunger is the bellwether for a deeper malaise. Despite huge increases in productivity and incomes over recent decades, global hunger in on the rise. There is consensus on climate change but we continue pumping out more and more greenhouse gases.


From the failing food system to wider social and ecological challenges, the dominant model of development is hitting its limits. It is time to change course. Since the challenge of food security is linked to many other challenges – climate change, landgrabbing, price volatility, poverty, adverse global trade policies, clearly we need solutions in these interlinked areas as well.

Oxfam has identified three fundamental shifts needed:
(1) we need to invest in small scale agriculture and grow a new agricultural future,
(2) we need to address climate change and build a new ecological future; and
(3) we need to improve national and global governance and tackle the barriers to food security, such as landgrabbing, biofuels policies, speculation

Build a new global governance
Governments’ top priority must be to tackle hunger and reduce vulnerability. They must build resilience by creating jobs, adapting to climate change, investing in disaster risk reduction, and extending social protection.

Build a new agricultural future
The imbalance in public investment in agriculture must be righted, redirecting the billions now being ploughed into unsustainable industrial farming in rich countries towards meeting the needs of small-scale food producers in developing countries. For that is where the major gains in productivity, sustainable intensification, poverty reduction, and resilience can be achieved.

Build a new ecological future
National governments must intervene to speed up and direct the transition. They must invest in public goods such as R&D in clean energy. Ultimately our success or failure in building a new ecological future will depend on political leaders agreeing a fair and ambitious global deal on climate change.

More info on http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow

KNMI : digitization of climate data in Indonesia 

The former vice minister of the Dutch former Ministry of Traffic and Water management agreed to support a new cooperation project between BMKG and KNMI to digitize and make available for research, historical climate data from the Indonesian region.

In the framework of this project Didah, which officially started on the 10th of July 2009 and will last until mid 2012, BMKG and KNMI will digitize millions of handwritten and printed historical weather and climate observations from the period 1840 – present. Especially in view of the global warming issue, this new and additional information on the Indonesian climate will be invaluable for climate researchers and others in the region who depend on a better understanding of climate and weather extremes.
The Didah project will not only produce newly digitized historical climate data. BMKG will archive and process the data and produce climate information e.g. on trends, patterns and extreme weather events. BMKG will adopt state of the art database techniques and climatological methods and tools that were developed at KNMI to establish a web based climate (change) information system for the Indonesian region. To realize this, BMKG specialists will visit and work at KNMI for several months during 2010 and 2011.

In the framework of project Didah an international climatological workshop was held in Jakarta in December 2009. Under auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) several international data rescue and climatology experts presented lectures and training and held discussions with trainees from BMKG and stakeholders from the region.
The workshop brought international attention and acclaim for project Didah and gave focus, basic knowledge and a common methodological framework to the participants.

Spring 2012 the Didah project will finish with a second workshop in the Indonesian. This will be a stakeholder workshop where potential users of BMKG climate information and climate services will discuss their needs and requirements with BMKG.

More information about the project is available on www.didah.org

The Netherlands Red Cross, Simavi, Cordaid, BothEnds, AMREF Flying Doctors, Avalon Foundation, Wetlands International, WWF the Netherlands, University for Peace, CARE The Netherlands, ICCO, Save the Children, SNV, Oxfam Novib, ITC, WUR, KNMI, ETC, IVM VU Amsterdam, TSD UT Twente, Eureko, Cardano, FMO, NWP, Commision MER, CPWC, Climate Partners, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Contact details

For questions and remarks concerning this newsletter or the Millennium Agreement, please contact the secretariat.

Millennium Agreement “Controlling Climate Risks” secretariat

Katrien Prins
Klimaatbureau HIER
Hamburgerstraat 28A
3512 NS Utrecht
The Netherlands
+31-30-234 8256