For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, …
The story began in 1935, when Taher Zavery’s grandfather emigrated to Kitui, Kenya, all the way from Gujarat, India, to set up a cotton ginning factory. There was no trace of electricity in the region at that time, and today, power is still unreliable, so the entire plant runs on …
Business lobbies in Europe and the US are pushing for a distinct, direct and formalised “business channel” into UN climate negotiations. In a submission to UN Climate Change’s Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) on 30 January, Business Europe, which represents industry confederations in 28 EU states, called for a conduit …
Given the extraordinary proliferation of seawater desalination plants, Israel’s transition to become a country that almost exclusively relies on desalination for municipal water supply is instructive as a case study, especially given concerns about the technology’s prodigious carbon footprint. This article offers a detailed description of the country’s desal experience …
This report presents the findings of the impact evaluation of the project 'African Climate Change and Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) in Ethiopia (phase 2)', which ran from 1 November 2011 to 31 December 2016 as part of the Oxfam GB's global CHASE Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA4) portfolio. The project aimed to …
Green areas induce smaller increases in the air temperature than built-up areas. They can offer a solution to mitigating the urban heat island impacts during heat waves, since the cool air generated by a park is diffused into its immediate surroundings through forced or natural convection. The purpose of this …
Kenya on Wednesday unveiled ethanol stoves for refugees in Kakuma camp in northwest part of the country to help mitigate climate carbon emissions. Principal Secretary for Environment and Forestry Charles Sunkuli said the stoves launched in partnership with electronics firm, Samsung, will help reduce dependency on charcoal in the camp. …
THE World Bank has collaborated with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to provide technical assistance and $4.5 billion in funding to help cities around the world better prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change, under the World Bank's City Resilience Program (CRP). Recently …
Addressing the climate challenge rests inter alia on the availability of adequate and sustainable climate-smart finance, along with properly designed mechanisms for its smooth provision. Leveraging such mechanisms has the potential to address socio-economic imbalances and political grievances that aggravate communities’ vulnerability and reduce their resilience to the impacts of …
In this policy paper the authors discuss policy instruments which can help to decarbonise passenger cars in the European Union. The authors elaborate to what extent these policy instruments are effective, technology-neutral, predictable, cost-effective and enforceable. Based on these criteria, they develop recommendations for the European Union and its Member …
A new report confirms that negative emission technologies (NETs) offer only “limited realistic potential” to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and not at the scale envisaged in some climate scenarios. In a new report by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC), senior scientists from across …
This study aims to inform planners in the State Government of the current climate change relevance and sensitivity of public expenditure in sectors outlined in Odisha’s SAPCC, through a detailed budget coding exercise. The purpose of this analysis is to assist the Government in first identifying which sectors and schemes …
Often ignored by policymakers and wittingly or unwittingly subjected to abuse by the public at large, wetlands are under grave threat of degradation by Liberians and foreign residents alike. The threat to wetlands is posed mainly by discarded waste, over hunting and fishing as well as the harvesting of wood …
ENVIRONMENT, Water and Climate minster Oppah Muchinguri has revealed that her ministry was recently allocated $80 million by Treasury to construct and repair dams, as part of efforts to intensify water harvesting projects to mitigate challenges posed by climate change. Muchinguri told Southern Eye last week that officials from her …
A new analysis of agricultural emissions by the Climate Action Tracker shows that reducing emissions through changes in farming practices alone will not be enough to limit global warming to 1.5°C, but changing our diets and reducing food waste could make significant additional reductions, which calls for a much more …
NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Three United Nations independent experts on Monday called on the Kenyan government to respect the rights of indigenous Sengwer peoples while implementing a climate change project in northwestern Kenya. The experts expressed concerns about recent reports that indigenous Sengwer peoples have been attacked and forcibly evicted from …
The Global Risks Report 2018 is published at a time of encouraging headline global growth. Any breathing space this offers to leaders should not be squandered: the urgency of facing up to systemic challenges has intensified over the past year amid proliferating signs of uncertainty, instability and fragility. This year’s …
Carbon stocks in vegetation have a key role in the climate system. However, the magnitude, patterns and uncertainties of carbon stocks and the effect of land use on the stocks remain poorly quantified. Here we show, using state-of-the-art datasets, that vegetation currently stores around 450 petagrams of carbon. In the …
Changes in human behavior in response to climate change, such as installing solar panels or insulating homes, alter greenhouse gas emissions. A new study for the first time measures the effects of these "behaviorally adjusted emissions" on the climate. Credit: CC0 1.0 Universal Humans may be the dominant cause of …
Although not considered in climate models, perceived risk stemming from extreme climate events may induce behavioural changes that alter greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we link the C-ROADS climate model to a social model of behavioural change to examine how interactions between perceived risk and emissions behaviour influence projected climate change. …
This inaugural edition of the climate resilience handbook consists of a series of articles, which provide insights on three distinct areas of action: strategies for climate resilience, financing for climate resilience, and how to leverage risk management tools to increase climate resilience. 2017 sparked new momentum towards building organizational climate …
