The Rio+20 Conference, the Earth Day and the World Environment Day, the FAO meetings and the UNFCCC and IPCC conferences, the G8 and the G20 summit, COP11. Those are just a few of a rich calendar of events on climate change for the year 2012.
As forty – two years before, when 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies, on April 22nd the Earth Day Network will organize worldwide the Earth Day. During the event the movement will in particular ask to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies, improve renewable energy technology and energy efficiency, make energy universally accessible.
The 2012 topic for the World Environment Day organized by UNEP is “Green Economy: Does it include you?” It will be discussed the main aspects of Green Economy, and how it involves our lives.
28th FAO Regional Conference for Europe (ERC) will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 16 – 20 April. Member countries will have the opportunity to discuss specific short and long-term recommendations aimed at foster regional and global food security, policy actions and institutional measures.
FAO is also organizing with the World Bank and other partners the 2nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change. The conference will take place from 7 – 11 May in Hanoi, Vietnam; policy makers, scientists, civil society etc will talk about the need of early action on climate – smart agriculture as a driver for green growth. The results of the conference in Hanoi will i.e. support and contribute to international processes, in particular to the Rio +20 process.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, will take place from 20 – 22 June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and will be focused on Green Economy in the framework of sustainable development and poverty eradication; the main issues to be discussed (in a series of “Rio+20 Issues Briefs”) will be: trade and Green Economy; oceans; sustainable cities; current ideas on sustainable development goals and indicators; green jobs and social inclusion; reducing disaster risk and building resilience; food security and sustainable agriculture; water; science and technology for sustainable development etc.
Vulnerability to hazards is very high and fast increasing in developed countries, with deleterious impacts on their economy. Disaster risk has in particular become an urgent and dramatic urban problem. So, The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is organizing a meeting in Venice (an example of good practices to many cities around the world in protecting its cultural heritage from the effects of climate change) entitled “Building cities resilience to disaster: protecting cultural heritage and adapting to climate change”.
The Bohn Climate Change Conference organized by the UNFCCC will take place from 14 – 25 May, while the 2012 International Conference on Climate Adaptation will take place in Tucson, USA, from 29 – 31 May. Co – organized by the University of Arizona and by UNEP’s Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA), the conference will focus on adaptation to climate variability and change, and will bring together researchers, policy makers, and practitioners from developed and developing countries to share insights into the challenges and opportunities that adaptation presents.
Leaders from around the world will meet together at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland (instead of Chicago, as previously planned) from 19 – 20 May, for the G8 summit, hosted by President Barack Obama. Mexico will chair the G – 20 in 2012 and host the Leaders’ Summit in June of the same year. The Mexican Presidency has highlighted five priorities: 1) economic stabilization and structural reforms as foundations for growth and employment; 2) strengthening the financial system to promote economic growth; 3) improving the international financial architecture in an interconnected world; 4) enhancing food security; 5) promoting sustainable development, green growth and the fight against climate change.
Other important appointments are the sixteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 16), that will take place from 30 April – 5 May in Montreal, Canada, and the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP11), from 8 – 19 October in Hyderabad, India, both focused on the main aspects and challenges of global biodiversity.

For further information, look at the full calendar, edited by the italian IPCC Focal Point:

• Calendar of main events on climate change for the year 201213 – 14 Mar. IPCC: 45th Session of the IPCC Bureau (WMO, Geneva, Switzerland)
• 19 – 20 Mar. UNISDR Building cities’ resilience to disasters: protecting cultural heritage and adapting to climate change (Venice, Italy)
• 16 – 20 Apr. FAO: 28th Regional Conference for Europe (ERC) (Baku, Azerbaijan)
• 22 Apr. Earth Day Network: Earth Day
• 30 Apr. – 5 May CBD: SBSTTA-16 (Montreal, Canada)
• 7 – 11 May FAO and World Bank: 2nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security, and Climate Change (Hanoi, Viet Nam)
• 12 -15 May ICLEI: Resilient Cities2012 – 3rd Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation (Bonn, Germany)
• 14 – 25 May UNFCCC: Climate Change Conference, including SBI 36, SBSTA 36, AWG-KP 17, AWG-LCA 15; workshops; ADP1 (Bonn, Germany)
• 19-20 May G8: 38th Summit (Camp David, Maryland, USA)
• 29 – 31 May University of Arizona (US)/ UNEP PROVIA: Climate Adaptation Futures: Second International Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2012 (Tucson, USA)
• 5 Jun. UNEP: World Environment Day (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
• 6 – 9 Jun. IPCC: 35th session (Dubrovnik, Croatia) TBC
• 18-19 Jun. G20: Summit 2012 (Los Cabos, Mexico) 20-22 Jun. UNCSD: Rio+20 Conference (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
• 8 – 19 Oct. CBD: COP11 (Hyderabad, India)
• 26 Nov. – 07 Dec. UNFCCC: Second sessional period in 2012 (Doha, Qatar)

————————————————–
ABBREVIATIONS
ADP = Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
AWG-KP = Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol
AWG-LCA = Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention
CBD = Convention on Biodiversity
CMP = Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties
COP = Conference of the Parties
FAO = Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
ICLEI = Local Governments for Sustainability
IPCC = Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
N.A. = (Currently) not available
PROVIA = Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation
SBI = Subsidiary Body for Implementation
SBSTA = Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice
SBSTTA = Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice
TBC = To be confirmed
UNCCD = United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNEP = United Nations Environment Programme
UNFCCC = United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
UNCSD = United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
UNISDR = United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
USA = United States of America

Instead here you can find the agenda of the 2012 IPCC meetings.

Photo by ax2groin