SciDev.Net

Biopact is a non-profit volunteer organisation connecting African and European citizens. It seeks to establish a 'mutually beneficial' biofuel and bioenergy relationship between the two continents. The group is web-based, and provides consulting services for a number of initiatives, including various bioenergy projects in the South.

Some of Biopact's ongoing projects include compiling an 'atlas' of biofuel production for use in estimating production factors, and exploiting Nica fruticans, a potential Nigerian biofuel crop.

The health gateway of the Climate Institute, which aims to help policymakers tackle climate change, has detailed notes on the resurgence of infectious diseases through global warming. These include vector-borne diseases spread through mosquitoes, ticks, triatomine bugs, sandflies and blackflies. It also looks at rodent-borne diseases, which are also set to increase as the climate changes — increased heavy rainfall can drive rodents out of their burrows and climate change is set to alter human migration patterns which could bring people into closer contact with rodents.

The Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) was established in June 2008 to provide accessible funding for projects that avoid deforestation and contribute to poverty alleviation in the Congo Basin. This multi-donor fund is run by a governing council supported by a secretariat based at the African Development Bank. The website provides reasons for establishing the fund, its proposal process and an overview of projects that have received funding.

The GHF's mission is to document the impact of climate change on humans, much of which is health-related. The website expands on the forum's key goal to raise awareness of "climate injustice", by which it means that the world's poor who cause "less than 1 per cent of global emissions, suffer 99 per cent of the casualties". The GHF achieves this goal through advocacy, especially at major climate change conferences. The organisation also works with public and private partners on key projects, including Weather Info For All, which seeks to provide reliable weather information to vulnerable communities affected by climate change.

This partnership of government and non-government organisations, researchers, international bodies and the private sector has a much-called for goal: to increase cooperation between organisations involved different sectors such as health, climate, humanitarian assistance, ecosystems, research and operational services.

The partners collaborate on regional projects to increase capacity within the medical and environmental science communities; use rural communication networks to provide information to remote communities; and enhance the capacity of public-health services to predict and respond quickly to cholera, malaria, meningitis and other climate-sensitive diseases.

The Pew Center is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organisation in the United States, dedicated to providing credible information, straight answers and innovative solutions in the effort to address global climate change. Established in 1998 by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Center aims to educate the public and key policy makers about the causes and potential consequences of climate change, particularly through publishing reports on environmental impacts, economics and policy issues.

SPRERI, based in Anand, India, was established in 1979. The institute aims to be a centre of excellence for renewable energies development, and promotes the use of renewables across the country.