The Environment Chronicle

Notable environmental events between 2004 and 2004 Deselect

  1. Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) took place from 6 to 17 December 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Buenos Aires Conference tagged the tenth anniversary of the Climate Convention. It ended with a minimal compromise after a one day delay. For less developed countries in particular, funds of 400 million euros per year are to be made available by the EU alone in order to provide them with better protection against flooding, storms and other climate damage. There was an agreement on a second meeting to be held in Bonn in May 2005 about the further reductions in greenhouse gases after 2012. The US have reconfirmed their denial of the Kyoto Protocol.

  2. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, there remains a strip of land running the entire length of Europe, from the Barents to the Black Sea, which remains comparatively undisturbed. It is the aim of the ?Green Belt? project to have this entire strip, or key habitats within it, as well as the connected areas become part of an ecological network. The first Conference of the Working Group is being organised by BfN and IUCN.

  3. CEHAPE is a document for policy makers, negotiated with Member States, that highlights the main commitments on children's environment and health and details the four regional priority goals (RPGs) for Europe. CEHAPE was adopted by European Ministers at the Budapest Conference through the Conference Declaration. The Budapest Conference is the fourth in a series started in 1989, bringing together ministers of health and of the environment as well as major stakeholders. European ministers are expected to reach consensus and make political commitments to ensure safer environments for children, through the adoption of a Conference declaration and of a children's environment and health action plan for Europe.

  4. The conference charted the way towards an expansion of renewable energies worldwide, responding to the call of the Johannesburg summit for the global development of renewable energy. It also kept up the momentum generated by the coalition of like-minded countries for promotion of renewable energies (known as the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition, JREC). 3600 participants met in Bonn, among them official governmental delegations including energy, environmental and development ministers, representatives of the United Nations and other international and non-governmental organisations, civil society and the private sector.