Report Monday 11th Nov. – Opening of COP19

The opening day of COP19 has been one of great concern in that the typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines has devastated the country. The lead negotiator from the Philippines gave a passionate, emotional speech at the beginning of the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19) on Monday. After his speech, Mr. Sano said: “It is always hard to attribute a single weather event to climate change, but we know that the science is also clear that climate change will mean more intense typhoons, potentially. And even if we cannot attribute Haiyan to climate change directly, my country refuses to accept a future where super-typhoons become a regular fixture.”