BBC: Poor women ‘bear climate burden’
The United Nations Population Fund warns that women in developing countries will be the most vulnerable to climate change due to the fact that they do most of the agricultural work and are therefore are affected by weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water. The report also suggested family planning, reproductive healthcare and “gender relations” could influence how the world adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts.

Reuters Africa: Africa agrees on secret climate damages demand
Reuters reports that African leaders have agreed on how much cash to demand from the rich world to compensate for the impact of climate change, but kept the figure secret ahead of next month’s Copenhagen talks. Exhaustive preparatory talks since 2007 have failed to solve splits between rich and poor countries or find extra funds to help developing nations to pay for expensive technology to ensure they do not over pollute as their economies grow. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Africa wanted a treaty to be agreed in Copenhagen but could accept a “binding political agreement” as a steppingstone to a treaty being agreed later.

Financial Times: The many roads to food security
The Financial Times argues that despite the UN food summit drawing to a halt “amid a plethora of platitudes about feeding the poor,” translating these discussions into action is what will prove difficult – not least because agriculture, with its concentrated groups of farmers and agribusinesses and diffuse groups of consumers, has proved “susceptible to producer group lobbying.” Argues the Times, “The food-security battle isn’t a question of one big heave: it is fought on hundreds of fronts. Most victories will be slow and technocratic rather than quick and spectacular, but will be all the more enduring for it.”

Reuters India: International health alliance says pushes vaccine costs down
A U.N.-backed health alliance reported Wednesday that the price of a vaccine that helps infants fend off a variety of deadly diseases has been forced down, thanks to a coordinated buying policy to meet the growing demand from developing countries. The five-in-one vaccine is given routinely to children in developed nations but price has kept them out of the reach of some poorer nations. However, higher demand has pushed purchasing costs down.”This price drop is no accident, but…the result of a strategy to leverage the purchasing power of hundreds of millions of people,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Saad Houry said in statement.