As South Africa prepares for the upcoming climate talks in Durban, the country is also trying to improve its own climate profile by making South Africa a more environmentally-friendly place. And Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the country’s minister of international relations, says women will need to lead the way.

It’s not the first time women have been described as the key to fighting climate change – and other global issues, for that matter. The UN says women make up the biggest share of the poor across the world. And it’s most often women who are dependent on natural resources to find food, water and energy to take care of their families. So naturally, they end up taking the brunt of the effects of climate change, which makes it harder to get those resources.

Yet women in many parts of the world have little power to effect social, political or economic change. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says we need to empower the world’s women to make those changes, by giving them the support needed to cope with climate change and listening to their voices. And she says any climate agreement has to take women into account.

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These pictures have been made during a 7-day Training programme in arctic ice. During the excursion participants learned about polar climate-related issues and, at the same time, they saw the amazing  beauty of the polar Arctic region.
The aim of this project was to raise awareness of the dramatic climate change impacts in the Arctic on an environmental, geo-political and socio-cultural level. Twenty young people from across Europe and Canada who are active in climate change projects participated on the training event.
The project was organized by the British Council and facilitated by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

For more online informations visit the British Council’s Zero Carbon Centre, the Youth in Action programme and the event’s blog.

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Al Gore hasn’t been in the spotlight much since a few years ago, when he was the most recognizable crusader for fighting climate change. But now he’s making a new push for a cleaner, more environmentally-friendly world. He’s launching a new global campaign called The Climate Reality Project. It’s a project that sets out to “reveal the complete truth about the climate crisis.”

Al Gore undertook this project because he says big oil and coal companies have deliberately misled the world about the reality of climate change. The effort is centered around a “24 Hours of Reality” which will take place September 14th – September 15th. During those 24 hours, Gore will give 24 multimedia presentations with pictures, information and slides revealing the effects of climate change on the planet. Then a panel of climate scientists will take over and discuss ways to solve the climate crisis.

Will you be watching 24 Hours of Reality?

Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira is a 16 year old student who has been working  in the environmental area for several years. He is a student and lives in the city of Ibiapina, Ceará in Brazil. Protecting the environment is his passion. Iranildo is writing for the GLOBAL IDEAS Blog about his experience with climate change and about projects he’s working on.

The Brazilian Climate Champions have been at the “Ceara’s 1st Night Cultural Fraternity Campaign”, 27th of May 2011. The event took place in the town of Ibiapina, the main theme was “fraternity and Life on Earth.”
I started a debate about environmental and ecological issues, that involved teachers, students, the government and the society in the city of Ibiapina-Ceará.

This years “Brotherhood Campaign” to me is an invitation to reflect all the needs to carry out actions that aim at mitigation and the adaptation of climate change.  It involves the constructive actions of the brazilian population to create a sustainable society. It also set the focus on the problems caused by years of misuse of natural resources and pollution solutions.
My lecture as a Climate Champion was entitled “Climate Change – Think + Act (think globally and act locally).” I stated that the new Brazilian Forest Code (adopted by the Board of Deputies of Brazil) could exacerbate climate change. According to the increased pressure on forests, that will undermine the international commitments, that had been assumed by Brazil in 2009 at COP 15 in Copenhagen.

I also explained the Fraternity Campaigns motto “Creation groans in travail”, that i use to decribe the changes and phenomena caused by the harmful action of the people, causing pain and suffering to humanity. The event was the initiative of the Municipal Government and the Catholic Church Ibiapina, receiving support from the Department of Environmental Conservation Program Prefuturo. It reflects the urgency of individual and collective attitudes in favor of changes in the relations between man and the environment.

The World Bank and the C40 – the mayors of the world’s 40 biggest cities – have come to an agreement to fund the fight against climate change! The leaders met in Sao Paulo in Brazil to come up with a concrete plan to cut their respective cities’ carbon footprints, and the World Bank promised financial support for those efforts.

Why is that news important? Well, megacities like New York, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Jakarta are responsible for 12% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. And all too often, they just don’t have the budget to implement green-friendly projects without outside help. Plus, the World Bank released a study at the C40 summit that says around 1 billion people worldwide who are living in big city slums are especially threatened by climate change. So if the 40 biggest metropolises can charge ahead now, we could see some drastic improvements in creating a cleaner planet and a green future.

Do you live in any of the C40 megacities? If so, how has climate change affected urban life there?