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The Adaptation Fund (AF) was established under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in order to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries affected by the global climate change. This report summarises the key decisions taken during the 19th meeting (December 11 to 14) of the Adaptation Fund Board.

Today, Germanwatch and six big German and European companies published a declaration in which they call on the German government to support the quick and long-term fix of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The declaration, signed by Alstom, EnBW, E.ON, Otto, Puma, Shell, and Germanwatch, demands to enhance security for low-carbon investments done and planned. Low prices for CO2 are like posion for them. They therefore urge the German government to act.

Students who graduated or will graduate in summer 2013 as (at least) a Bachelor may apply at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany, to be one of the 25 participants admitted for the two‐year study programme Global Change Management (M.Sc.). Classes will begin in September 2013. The mission of GCM is to educate specialists who are able to cope with challenges of natural resource management under global change in an adaptive, proactive and precautionary manner.

This list contains a selection of online articles from around the world available shortly after the release of the Climate Change Performance Index 2013.

The press list contains a selection of online articles from around the world available shortly after the release of the Global Climate Risk Index. They may be outdated after a few weeks or months.

The Climate Change Performance Index is an instrument supposed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. On the basis of standardised criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 58 countries that are, together, responsible for more than 90 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions.

In a time of heavily increasing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel investments, the light at the end of the tunnel cannot yet be seen. The eighth annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which was published at the Doha climate talks today by Germanwatch and the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, ranks the climate protection performance of the 58 highest emitters worldwide. For the first time, the index used deforestation data, which resulted in a rankings drop of countries with high forest emissions such as Brazil and Indonesia. Once again, no country made it into the first three spots on the list due to a lack of ambition to reach the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degree Celsius.

Most damages resulting from weather extremes are often not recognised by international media, unlike Sandy's destruction at the U.S. east coast a few weeks ago. But in 2011, poorer developing countries have been hit much harder in average, according to the new edition of the Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index. The ranking, which was presented today at the UN climate summit in Doha, concludes that Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan and El Salvador are on top of those countries that suffered most from extreme weather events in 2011.

Natural catastrophes, many of which are directly or indirectly expedited by climate change, take a heavy toll on people and economies. In 2011 a record high in economic damage was reached, with an estimated loss of more than US$350 billion. The human toll is...

140 civil society actors from 22 industrial and emerging states call for a fundamental reform of energy and agricultural policies in order to fight hunger and climate change worldwide. This is a result of the "Dialogue on Transformation" which took place in Bonn last weekend. The participating organisations on the one side urge to the right to development and on the other side also to a form of development that accepts the boundaries of the planet.