8 April 2011: The 16th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 16), the 14th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA 14), and three pre-sessional workshops convened in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3-8 April 2011. Over 2000 participants from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academia, the private sector and the media attended the meetings, which concluded with the adoption of an agenda for AWG-LCA 14. More.

Photo: AWG-LCA Chair Daniel Reifsnyder (US) gavelled the meeting to a close at 9:34pm.

5 April 2011: The fifth session of the Preparatory Commission for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the first session of the IRENA Assembly, which convened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), brought together 950 participants to, inter alia: appoint the Director-General; elect the Council; adopt a work programme and budget for 2011, and rules of procedure; designate the permanent seat of the Agency; select a permanent emblem of IRENA; and organize the second session of the Assembly. During the Assembly, Adnan Amin was sworn in as Director-General for a term of four years. More.

Photo: Adnan Amin (Kenya) addressed the plenary during his appointment as the Director-General of IRENA.

31 March 2011: The Fifth International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA), which was organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and convened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, addressed the theme “Scaling Up: Beyond Pilots.” Participants focused on the need to spread CBA knowledge and practical lessons horizontally across communities and vertically across levels of governance and action. More.