In May 1996, UNFCCC’s Secretariat launched the CC:INFO/Web program, an initiative based on the Brazilian experience aimed at improving and furthering the idea that the countries should have their own sites about climate change on the internet. After requesting support, every country that wishes to be part of CC:INFO/Web will have access to a CD-ROM with the standard pages of the national site on climate change and the support of web experts.

This is a very interesting idea because it is a way of standardizing the access to different national sites – sites which will have specific characteristics related to each country conditions. This initiative can, therefore, be seen as an intelligent way of simplifying the comprehension and scope of the main issues presented in every national site related to climate change.

The establishment of common guidelines to access all national homepages on climate change (a standard CC:INFO/Web homepage) will entail an additional need to integrate the Brazilian site to these efforts related to the Convention (consequently ensuring a compatibility of access through the CC:INFO/Web homepage). A workshop carried out at the beginning of June 1996 was the first step towards a theoretical discussion on what the national homepage on climate change should contain and which would be the best way to structure its content.

This new structure will translate into new pages, additional to the Brazilian site, or into a process to redesign the existing pages so that they can assimilate better points of view and ideas proposed during the workshop. Some of the new pages will contain information about the institutions’ capacity and specialized knowledge related to climate change in Brazil. Another material to be presented includes information on activities being carried out in the country and projects currently under development by Brazilian institutions; workshop and meeting schedules; and national studies and publications available on climate change. Another interesting possibility is the inclusion of the official Brazilian stand on issues related to the Convention.

While there is a wide range of possibilities and alternative uses for this website, there are also several difficulties to be faced, which raises some concerns.

Firstly, the amount of texts to be worked with poses a serious limitation. This work requires intensive labor and equipment, none of which available for exclusive dedication to that task. These resources should tap all issues related to the preparation of the Brazilian National Communication.

Second, there is a need to make all participant institutions formally commit themselves to the preparation of a continuous flow of material to be fed to the web and to periodically update the information. This is important because it encourages frequent access to the site in search of new pages.

Last but not least, there will be a great need to translate all the available material into English, Spanish or Portuguese. This situation brings an additional burden to the staff in charge of preparing the national communication for the Convention.