In the dying hours of UN climate negotiations, hundreds of campaigners occupied the conference centre halls to call on countries to "Reject the Text."

As ministers arrived at climate talks in the Qatari capital Doha, Greenpeace urged European countries not to take the side of Poland and Russia in a battle over whether to maintain the Kyoto Protocol’s biggest loophole and to make real progress on a deal to prevent catastrophic climate change.

This year, the United Nation's two-week climate-change conference, COP18 in Doha, Qatar, provides yet another opportunity for serious climate-change mitigation. And with the recent Superstorm Sandy, it is clear that tough decisions must be hammered out as soon as possible because climate change will not slow down for us.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Doha kicked off today, with calls to implement agreed decisions and stick to agreed tasks and timetables.

South Africa has been granted US$3.5m for integrated fire management programmes in the Fynbos biome, a fire-dependent ecosystem particularly vulnerable to unwanted wildland fire triggered by climate change.

The latest round of international climate change talks is poised to start, with numerous questions about clean tech funding and negotiation roadmap unresolved.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has a plan which aims to increase innovation, hope, passion and momentum for action against climate change.

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms. Nkoana-Mashabane, has announced the appointment of Mr. Zaheer Fakir (South Africa) and Mr. Georg Børsting (Norway) as co-Chairs of a work programme on long-term climate finance.

"Technology is vital for developing countries to both curb their emissions and to build more climate-resilient societies," said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. "This meeting is an important next step towards ensuring that the Mechanism becomes fully operational this year and begins delivering concrete results”.

The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, the key outcome of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2011, has been dubbed by many as the platform for inaction, with the decision to find agreement by 2015 being seen as the agreement to disagree at a later date.

All eyes are on South Africa this year. COP17 is upon us and the world is hoping for global agreement and participation in order to stop the undeniable effects of global warming.