Photo Gallery Climate Compensation Turning Point
Climate activists dressed as world leaders protest in front of the UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland on Nov. 22. The conference fell short of a solid road map for the next conference in 2015, but the adoption of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage represents an important move forward in dealing with the current realities of climate change.
Typhoon Haiyan whipped into the Philippines just as the Climate Change Conference was getting underway in Warsaw. The storm was one of the most powerful on record, and led to a wider debate about the role of climate change on severe weather. Pictured: A typhoon survivor carries his bicycle near the ravaged Palo township in Philippines.
An aerial shot of the typhoon's devastation. Climate change doesn't just mean stronger typhoons. It also means sea-level rise, desertification, unpredictability of rain for crops, drought and other problems that tend to result in fewer news reports than a crushing storm like Haiyan.
German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier at the Warsaw conference: The US and the EU wanted the new mechanism to be positioned "under" UNFCCC's "framework for adaptation," an existing initiative to "strengthen action" on adaptation to climate change in developing countries "through international cooperation." Developing nations were opposed to the idea.
"One word, 'under', will forever be the difference between two paths we take," said Filipino negotiator Yeb Sano, shown here, during the long and passionate discussions before the agreement, referring to the positioning of the mechanism as part of the adaptation framework. The end result was a compromise.
Many countries and cities around the world are busy preparing plans and enacting changes to get ready for a different world. Here, storm clouds gather above the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati in May, 2013. The nation stands just meters above sea level, and is endangered by rising sea levels.
