COP24 Agreement Reached Bringing Paris pact To Life In 2020, #ClimateSmart!

"Putting together the Paris agreement work program is a big responsibility, It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no-one behind." " said the chairman of the talks, known as COP24, Michal Kurtyka.
Rows over how carbon markets are managed threatened to derail the meeting at the last minute and to resolve the issues, the event was delayed by a day. Delegates involved believe the new rules agreed, would ensure that countries keep their promises to cut carbon.

The disagreements comes from developing countries seeking recognition and compensation for the impact of rising temperatures while richer nations fear the idea of being legally liable for causing climate change and expect huge bills well into the future.
Scientists and delegates were shocked when the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to the a recent UN report on keeping global temperature rise to within the 1.5C limit.

"The key piece was having a good transparency system because it builds trust between countries and because we can measure what is being done and it is precise enough, I am happy with that. Nobody can say that's not clear, we don't know what to do, or that it's not true anymore. It's very clear," Laurence Tubiana, a key architect of the Paris agreement told BBC News.

Direct From Copenhagen, World Climate Leader, Live on YouTube

This morning, world climate leaders like U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and journalist Thomas Friedman, gathered in Copenhagen to answer questions submitted by viewers of YouTube Climate Debate Channel.
8890 people have submitted questions and you can see a map of people who submitted questions from all corners of our earth. I like the question;
Why is it "climate change" not "global warming" as we have seen from the "Danish Text" that rich nations are trying to cool down some of the facts at COP15.
But working together, we all can come to a better solution for all, every citizen of the planet. Get involved and be truly green.
If you missed the live broadcast, youtube and CNN will have highligts starting from 17th December. (But there are other videos you can watch now)
Official Google Blog: Live on YouTube: Leaders answer your questions in the CNN/YouTube Climate Debate

33% Of Reef Building Corals Face Extinction And Joind he IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Mushroom corals (Fungiidae) belonging to various species affected by bleaching during elevated seawater temperatures in the Thousand Islands, off Jakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Coral Assessment
Creator: Bert W. Hoeksema / Naturalis
Copyright: Bert W. Hoeksema / Naturalis
Country: Indonesia

Climate change and human-induced destruction cited as causes

Arlington, VA (July 10, 2008) – A third of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction, according to the first-ever comprehensive global assessment to determine their conservation status. The study findings were published today by Science Express.

Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) – a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) – to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to this important group of marine species.

"The results of this study are very disconcerting," stated Kent Carpenter, lead author of the Science article, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme. "When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems."

Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of marine species, making them the most biologically diverse of marine ecosystems. Corals produce reefs in shallow tropical and sub-tropical seas and have been shown to be highly sensitive to changes in their environment.

Researchers identified the main threats to corals as climate change and localized stresses resulting from destructive fishing, declining water quality from pollution, and the degradation of coastal habitats. Climate change causes rising water temperatures and more intense solar radiation, which lead to coral bleaching and disease often resulting in mass coral mortality.

Shallow water corals have a symbiotic relationship with algae called zooxanthellae, which live in their soft tissues and provide the coral with essential nutrients and energy from photosynthesis and are the reason why corals have such beautiful colors. Coral bleaching is the result of a stress response, such as increased water temperatures, whereby the algae are expelled from the tissues, hence the term "bleaching." Corals that have been bleached are weaker and more prone to attack from disease. Scientists believe that increased coral disease also is linked to higher sea temperatures and an increase in run-off pollution and sediments from the land.

Researchers predict that ocean acidification will be another serious threat facing coral reefs. As oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, water acidity increases and pH decreases, severely impacting corals' ability to build their skeletons that form the foundation of reefs.

The 39 scientists who co-authored this study agree that if rising sea surface temperatures continue to cause increased frequency of bleaching and disease events, many corals may not have enough time to replenish themselves and this could lead to extinctions.

"These results show that as a group, reef-building corals are more at risk of extinction than all terrestrial groups, apart from amphibians, and are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change," said Roger McManus, CI's vice president for marine programs. "The loss of the corals will have profound implications for millions of people who depend on coral reefs for their livelihoods."

Coral reefs harbor fish and other marine resources important for coastal communities. They also help protect coastal towns and other near-shore habitats from severe erosion and flooding caused by tropical storms.

Staghorn (Acroporid) corals face the highest risk of extinction, with 52 percent of species listed in a threatened category. The Caribbean region has the highest number of highly threatened corals (Endangered and Critically Endangered), including the iconic elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) which is listed as Critically Endangered. The high biodiversity "Coral Triangle" in the western Pacific's Indo-Malay-Philippine Archipelago has the highest proportions of Vulnerable and Near-Threatened species in the Indo-Pacific, largely resulting from the high concentration of people living in many parts of the region.

Corals from the genera Favia and Porites were found to be the least threatened due to their relatively higher resistance to bleaching and disease. In addition, 141 species lacked sufficient information to be fully assessed and were therefore listed as Data Deficient. However, researchers believe that many of these species would have been listed as threatened if more information were available.

The results emphasize the widespread plight of coral reefs and the urgent need to enact conservation measures. "We either reduce our CO₂ emission now or many corals will be lost forever," says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General. "Improving water quality, global education and the adequate funding of local conservation practices also are essential to protect the foundation of beautiful and valuable coral reef ecosystems."

Coral experts participated in three workshops to analyze data on 845 reef-building coral species, including population range and size, life history traits, susceptibility to threats, and estimates of regional coral cover loss.

The reef-building corals assessment is one group of a number of strategic global assessments of marine species the GMSA has been conducting since 2006 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Other assessments are being conducted on seagrasses and mangroves that are also important habitat-forming species, all marine fishes, and other important keystone invertebrates. By 2012, the GMSA plans to complete its comprehensive first stage assessment of the threat of extinction for over 20,000 marine plants and animals, providing an essential baseline for conservation plans around the world, and tracking the extinction risk of marine species.

The results of the coral species assessment will be placed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in October 2008. Currently, the assessments can be found at http://www.sci.odu.edu/gmsa/about/corals.shtml.

###

NOTE: A press briefing will be held at 1pm EST Thursday July 10 in Room 123 at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Photos, video and other media materials available at: ftp.conservation.org/guest/CORALS
(Please copy and paste the link into your Internet browser)
User ID: mediaguest Password: paris0405 (all lowercase)

Contacts:
Kent Carpenter, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme, kcarpent@odu.edu, +1 757 683 3481 Cell: +1-757 641-0666
Susan Bruce, International Media Relations Director, Conservation International, sbruce@conservation.org, +1 703 341 2471 Cell: +1-571-721-8344
Lynette Lew, Marketing and Communications, IUCN Species Programme, lynette.lew@iucn.org, +41 22 999 0153
Carolin Wahnbaeck, Media Relations Officer, IUCN, carolin.wahnbaeck@iucn.org, +41 22 999 0313

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity and demonstrate that human societies can live harmoniously with nature. Founded in 1987, CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents to help people find economic alternatives without harming their natural environments. For more information about CI, visit www.conservation.org.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges by supporting scientific research; managing field projects all over the world; and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN, international conventions and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice.

IUCN is the world's oldest and largest global environmental network. IUCN is a democratic union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and some 10,000 volunteer scientists in more than 150 countries. IUCN's work is supported by 1,100 professional staff in 62 countries and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. www.iucn.org.

The IUCN Species Programme supports the activities of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and individual Specialist Groups, as well as implementing global species conservation initiatives. It is an integral part of the IUCN Secretariat and is managed from IUCN's international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. The Species Programme includes a number of technical units covering Species Trade and Use, Red List, Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, (all located in Cambridge, UK), and the Global Biodiversity Assessment Initiative (located in Washington DC, USA). www.iucn.org/species

The Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) began in late 2005 and is based in the Department of Biological Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. This project will be the first global review of the conservation status of every marine vertebrate species, and of selected invertebrates and plants. The project involves a range of partners in compiling and analyzing all existing data on approximately 20,000 marine species, and will determine the risk of extinction according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. http://www.sci.odu.edu/gmsa/

Tags: International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, Global Marine Species Assessment, GMSA, ecosystem Collapse, zooxanthellae, bleached Corals, Staghorn Corals, Red List of Threatened Species, Mushroom corals, Coral Assessment

The Wilkins Ice Shelf Is Experiencing Further Disintegration.

click on the image to see a larger version

The Wilkins Ice Shelf that we wrote about last March is experiencing further disintegration. The Ice Shelf has reduced further due to disintegration that is threatening the collapse of the ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. Since the connection to the island in the image centre helps to stabilize the ice shelf, it is likely the break-up of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk. Once the connection to the island is gone, shelf might come under other possible changes due loss of stability that the shelf had due to the bridge.

An animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) between 30 May and 9 July 2008, available at the ESA site (Link Below) shows the break-up event which began on the east (right) rather than the on west (left) like the previous event that occurred last month. By 8 July, a fracture that could open the ice bridge was visible. According to the image acquired on 7 July 2008, Dr Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces at Bonn University estimates the area lost on the Wilkins Ice Shelf during this break-up event is about 1350 km² with a rough estimate of 500 to 700 km² in addition being lost if the bridge to Charcot Island collapses.
This is how the shelf looked like in 1992.
ESA Article for more information and photos.

Tags: Wilkins Ice Shelf, Charcot Island, Envisat, Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar, Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces

California Is Heating Up And Study Suggests More Heat Waves, Energy Use For Next Century

Projected California warming promises cycle of more heat waves, energy use for next century

BERKELEY, CA. -- As the 21st century progresses, major cities in heavily air-conditioned California can expect more frequent extreme-heat events because of climate change.

This could mean increased electricity demand for the densely populated state, raising the risk of power shortages during heat waves, said Norman Miller, an earth scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and geography professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Katharine Hayhoe, a climate researcher at Texas Tech University. If the electricity were generated using fossil fuels, this could also mean even more emissions of heat-trapping gases that cause climate change.

Their results were published in the online version of the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. Co-authors included Maximilian Auffhammer, of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at UC Berkeley, and Jiming Jin, formerly of the Earth Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab and now at Utah State University.

"Electricity demand for industrial and home cooling increases near linearly with temperature," said lead author Miller, a climate scientist and a principal investigator with the Energy Biosciences Institute in Berkeley. "In the future, widespread climate warming across the western U.S. could further strain the electricity grid, making brownouts or even rolling blackouts more frequent."

When projected future changes in extreme heat and observed relationships between high temperature and electricity demand for California are mapped onto current availability, the researchers discovered a potential for electricity deficits as high as 17 percent during peak electricity demand periods.

Climate projections from three atmosphere–ocean general circulation models were used to assess projected increases in temperature extremes and day-to-day variability, said Hayhoe. Increases range from approximately twice the present-day number of extreme heat days for inland California cities such as Sacramento and Fresno, to up to four times the number of extreme heat days for previously temperate coastal cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego before the end of the century.

This year, California experienced an unusually early heat wave in May and is currently in the midst of its second major heat wave of the summer, one that has already broken high temperature records for several more California cities and increased fire and health risks. One hundred and nineteen new daily high temperature records were set during the May heat wave, including the earliest day in the year in which Death Valley temperatures reached 120oF (on May 19, beating the old record of May 25 set in 1913).

In the future, the authors say, the state should brace for summers dominated by heat wave conditions such as those experienced this year. Extreme heat and heat wave events have already triggered major electricity shortages, most notably in the summer of 2006. Given past events, the results of this study suggest that future increases in peak electricity demand may challenge current and future electricity supply and transmission capacities.

Similar increases in extreme-heat days are likely for other U.S. urban centers across the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as for large cities in developing nations with rapidly increasing electricity demands.

Risk of electricity shortages can be reduced through energy conservation, said Hayhoe, as well as through reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases in order to limit the amount of future climate change that can be expected.

Miller and Hayhoe also contributed to the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Miller is currently leading the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) project on biofuel productivity potentials, including biofuels' impact under changing climate conditions. The EBI is a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab dedicated to the development and analysis of the impacts of sustainable biofuels. Miller is also a member of the U.N. Earth Science System Partnership Working Group on Bioenergy.

Contact: Ron Kolb
RRKolb@berkeley.edu
510-643-6255
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

CONTACT: Katharine Hayhoe, associate professor, Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, (806) 742-0015, (806) 392-1900, or katharine.hayhoe@ttu.edu

Norman Miller, climate scientist, Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, (510) 495-2374, or NLMiller@lbl.gov

Tags: Heat Waves, Energy Use, air-conditioned California, UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab, electricity deficits, Climate Change, biofuel

National Action Plan on Climate Change Launched By India

India on Monday unveiled its climate change action plan which does not set target reduction of greenhouse gas emissions but seeks to promote sustainable development through use of clean technologies.
The National Action Plan on Climate Change categorically states that India's per capita greenhouse gas emissions will "at no point exceed that of developed countries."
 According to UN data, per-capita emissions of carbon dioxide, in India, were 1.2 tonnes in 2004, compared with 20.6 tonnes for the United States for the same year. India is not yet required to cut emissions as it is a developing nation, under the Kyoto Protocol. But it is facing mounting pressure from environmental groups and industrialized nations.
Under the plan India will focus mainly on following areas;

• Solar Energy
• Enhanced Energy Efficiency
• Sustainable Habitat
• Conserving Water
• Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
• A “Green India”
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Strategic Knowledge Platform for Climate Change

The document underlines that "India will engage actively in multilateral negotiations in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in a positive, constructive and forward-looking manner.". The Prime Minister Singh also clarified that the National Action Plan would evolve and aims to further improve the various elements of the Plan. He concluded by recalling Mahatma Gandhi’s advice: “The earth has enough resources to meet the needs of people, but will never have enough to serve their greed”.

Climate Change May Severely Impact California's Unique Native Plants.

Climate change could severely impact California's unique native plants.
Big question remains: can plants migrate fast enough to escape warming's effects

Berkeley -- The native plants unique to California are so vulnerable to global climate change that two-thirds of these "endemics" could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by the end of the century, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.

Because endemic species - native species not found outside the state - make up nearly half of all California's native plants, a changing climate will have a major impact on the state's unparalleled plant diversity, the researchers warn.

"Our study projects that climate change will profoundly impact the future of the native flora in California," said David Ackerly, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. "The magnitude and speed of climate change today is greater than during past glacial periods, and plants are in danger of getting killed off before they can adjust their distributions to keep pace."

The researchers caution that their study can't reliably predict the fate of specific species. However, the trend is clear: The researchers project that, in response to rising temperatures and altered rainfall, many plants could move northward and toward the coast, following the shifts in their preferred climate, while others, primarily in the southern part of the state and in Baja California, may move up mountains into cool but highly vulnerable refugia

Coast redwoods may range farther north, for example, while California oaks could disappear from central California in favor of cooler weather in the Klamath Mountains along the California-Oregon border. Many plants may no longer be able to survive in the northern Sierra Nevada or in the Los Angeles basin, while plants of northern Baja California will migrate north into the San Diego mountains. The Central Valley will become preferred habitat for plants of the Sonoran desert.

"Across the flora, there will be winners and losers," said first author Scott Loarie, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University's Nicholas School for the Environment who has worked with Ackerly on the analysis for the past four years. "In nearly every scenario we explored, biodiversity suffers - especially if the flora can't disperse fast enough to keep pace with climate change."

The authors identified several "climate-change refugia" scattered around the state. These are places where large numbers of the plants hit the hardest by climate change are projected to relocate and hang on. Many of these refugia are in the foothills of coastal mountains such as the Santa Lucia Mountains along California's Central Coast, the Transverse Ranges separating the Central Valley from Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. Many of these areas are already under increasing pressure from encroaching suburban development.

"There's a real potential for sheltering a large portion of the flora in these refugia if they are kept wild and if plants can reach them in time," Loarie said. The authors argue that it's not too early to prepare for this eventuality by protecting corridors through which plants can move to such refugia, and maybe even assisting plants in reestablishing themselves in new regions.

"Part of me can't believe that California's flora will collapse over a period of 100 years," Ackerly said. "It's hard to comprehend the potential impacts of climate change. We haven't seen such drastic changes in the last 200 years of human history, since we have been cataloguing species."

Ackerly, Loarie and colleagues at UC Berkeley, Duke University in Durham, N.C., California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo and Texas Tech University in Lubbock report their findings in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, which appears online June 25.

The researchers spent four years mining the data from more than 16 plant collections around the state, in particular from the University and Jepson Herbaria of UC Berkeley, to assess the climatic ranges of more than 2,000 California endemic plants. These represent almost 40 percent of the 5,500 native plants in the California Floristic Province, which includes most of the state except for the deserts and the Modoc Plateau in the northeast, and also includes parts of southern Oregon and northern Baja California. The plants assessed include individual species, as well as subspecies and varieties.

In collaboration with climate modeler Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech, Loarie and Ackerly then employed two different climate models - one based at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and the other at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office - that predict changes in temperature and precipitation through the year 2100 for lower and higher greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. They then projected for each model and scenario where California's endemic species would have to move in order to find the microclimate they need to survive. One set of projections assumed that plants can easily relocate, while another assumed that they cannot migrate at all by 2100, so their ranges will only shrink as climate changes.

Loarie emphasized that there are many uncertainties in the analysis - for example, in the known range of individual plants; in knowledge of the microclimate each plant prefers; in how much warming can be expected based on best- and worst-case greenhouse gas scenarios; in the direction and magnitude of changes in California rainfall; and in whether or not plants can migrate sufficiently in 100 years to discover congenial habitat.

Despite these unknowns, the researchers said they are confident in their approach, which has been used previously to predict global warming's effects on isolated species or plant families in places such as South Africa, Europe, the eastern U.S. and southern California.

"We can have confidence in the trends, if not in what happens to specific species," Loarie said. "There is a clear trend despite the uncertainty."

In the most optimistic scenario, in which global emissions of carbon dioxide return to near-1990 levels by the end of the century and plants are able to move into new habitats within a century, diversity of species in parts of California might actually increase, especially along the northwest and central coast. Nevertheless, diversity in the northern Sierra and in southern California would decrease.

However, such an optimistic outcome is far less likely than more dire ones, Ackerly said. In the higher scenario - the greatest warming, and plants unable to move in the 90- to-100-year time frame of global warming - plant diversity will decrease everywhere by as much as 25 percent, even if no species actually become extinct. Similarly, 66 percent of all endemic species will experience more than an 80 percent reduction in range.

If plants are able to disperse in time to find more suitable habitat, the researchers found that ranges will shift by an average of 150 kilometers (95 miles) under higher climate change, often with no overlap between the old and new ranges. Paradoxically, this may separate species that now live together: Substantial numbers of floral communities may be split up as some species move south and uphill while others move north and towards the coast.

Though the study did not look at the response of invasive or non-native plants to climate change, Ackerly said that they likely will expand their ranges at the expense of natives and endemics. And shifting and shrinking ranges of endemic species likely will affect animal diversity as well. Ackerly noted that range change may separate an animal from its major food source, or a pollinator from its preferred plant.

With the shifting ranges of endemic species, species conservation becomes a moving target, the researchers noted. Brent Mishler, director of the University and Jepson herberia and a professor of integrative biology, anticipates a big need for information on possible plant movement among those people protecting, managing or restoring natural areas around the state.

"They could really benefit by knowing what plants are in danger of being eliminated from their area, and maybe even more importantly, what plants to keep in mind that will be 'refugees' from other sites that will need to move into their area to avoid extinction," he said. "Planning for refugees will become a new but important concept for natural reserves to think about."

Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley

Tags: global warming, Climate Change, California, endemics, Coast redwoods, Klamath Mountains, climate-change refugia, University of California Berkeley

UK Government Emits Inaccurate CO2 Emission Data.

According an article on Guardian, UK Government has emitted what accounts to be lies regarding CO2 emissions. According to the report by National Audit Office, UK emitted 733 metric tons in 2005, instead of 656 Metric tons as stated by the government.

"Britain's climate change emissions may be 12% higher than officially stated, according to a National Audit Office investigation which has strongly criticized the government for using two different carbon accounting systems. There is "insufficient consistency and coordination" in the government's approach, the NAO said.

Using one system, which the government presents to the UN and in public, Britain emitted 656m tonnes of CO2 in 2005, and claims an improvement on 1990 figures. However, the lesser-known but more accurate data in the government's national environmental accounts show emissions to be in the region of 733m tonnes in 2005, a NAO report says today.

"There are two different bases on which the government reports emissions: that required for the UN, and the environmental accounts prepared for the Office of National Statistics ... [which are] more comprehensive as they include aviation and shipping emissions. They present UK progress in reducing emissions in a markedly different light", says the report.

The report says there have been "no reductions in UK emissions" if measured by the national accounts method."

Guardian's article.

tag: Climate Change, NAO, CO2 emissions,

Al Gore and Cisco on Climate Change and Technology Innovation

If you have seen those Cisco Television advertisements about Cisco TelePresence system, virtual conferencing system tying up people from different parts of the world, now you have a chance to actually experience the system. I have so far avoided having to fly to different parts of the world just to have a meetings, by using a similar systems (smaller scale! see the photo on your left) but I can put those carbon savings to my green account!. If you cannot be near one of the places hosting the event, The virtual discussion will also be streamed live via a webcast session for general viewing. Mark your calendars.

Nobel Laureate Al Gore and Cisco CEO John Chambers Host Virtual Discussion on Climate Change and Technology Innovation

February 27, 2008

WHO:
Al Gore, Nobel Laureate and former U.S. Vice President
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
Sue Bostrom, EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Cisco

WHAT: Al Gore, John Chambers and Sue Bostrom will come together in a virtual unified communications environment before a live audience of technology leaders to examine the critical role that innovation can play in mitigating climate change. The virtual discussion will also be streamed live via a webcast session for general viewing. Key discussion topics will include:

* the latest observations of the effects of global warming and the impact of information technology

* how businesses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through innovation

* how the technology industry can help create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change

The public is invited to submit topic ideas and panel questions to: ecopanelquestions@external.cisco.com

HOW: This event marks a technological breakthrough showcasing a new way of communicating and collaborating in which the panelists will appear as if they are in the same room even though they will be thousands of miles apart. This unique virtual discussion will take place via the Cisco TelePresence system with John Chambers, Al Gore and Sue Bostrom addressing live audiences simultaneously in London, England, Orlando, Fla.,and several other locations around the world.

WHEN: March 19, 2008 at 11 a.m. ET (8 a.m. PT /15:00 GMT)

WHERE: Technology leaders attending the communications industry conference, VoiceCon, in Orlando, Fla., will have the opportunity to watch the discussion live via a Cisco TelePresence system that will be placed on stage. The event will take place during Cisco's keynote session hosted by Cisco chief marketing officer Sue Bostrom.

WEBCAST: To register for the webcast, go to www.cisco.com/offer/ecopanel

CONTACT: Jacqueline Pigliucci, Corporate Communications, Cisco
jpigliuc@cisco.com, 408.853.6389

tag: Climate Change, Technology Innovation, Al Gore, John Chambers, Cisco, VoiceCon, Cisco TelePresence, ecopanel