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, …
Much has changed since countries first developed their NDCs. All Parties have the opportunity to communicate new or updated NDCs by 2020, informed by the outcomes of a facilitative dialogue in 2018, and incorporating advances in renewable energy, technology and policy developments in key sectors. This paper presents a menu …
Building on FAO’s global study of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the agriculture sectors, the Climate and Environment Division (CBC) is developing a series of regional-level analyses of the NDCs to identify the current commitments, gaps and opportunities for enhancing regional mitigation and adaptation ambitions in the agriculture sectors. …
This policy brief outlines and analyses worldwide trends in legislation and litigation on climate change. The analysis covers legislative activities in 177 countries with varying economic contexts and income levels. The data informing this brief clearly shows that no country is acting alone on climate change. However, countries differ in …
The Report Transport in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that was published ahead of the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany summarises case study findings from rapidly-motorising countries, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru and Viet Nam. It highlights the shared challenges they face in developing and …
Under the UN climate talks, countries will not revisit their pledges until 2020 -- "the last opportunity to close the 2030 emissions gap," said UN Environment in its annual Emissions Gap report Report reveals large gap between government pledges and the reductions needed to prevent dangerous global warming. There is …
Two years since the negotiation of the Paris Agreement, the global community faces significant challenges in mobilizing the climate investment required to meet the Paris Agreement shared goal of limiting global warming to, at most, two degrees Celsius and to adapt to climate impacts. As governments focus on ways to …
Paris - The mayors of Cape Town, Los Angeles, Paris and several other major world cities are pledging to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from "large parts" of their cities by 2030. Some cities are moving even faster to reduce emissions, and the announcement on Monday by leading metropolitan areas …
Nearly nine out of 10 of the world’s biggest companies have plans in place to reduce carbon emissions, new research has found, but only a fifth of them are doing so for 2030 and beyond. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) also found that only 14% of its sample of 1,073 …
Food loss and waste (FLW) reduces the amount of food available for distribution and consumption, decreases food security, and increases the environmental burden of food production. Combating FLW addresses the key pillars of climate-smart agriculture for farmers by increasing productivity, promoting adaption to climate change, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. …
Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact. Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the …
Three years ago, thousands of farmers living on the flat fertile plains of Guadalcanal, the largest island in this South Pacific nation, watched their homes and crops washed away by the strongest torrential rain and flooding they had ever seen. Now the government is working on new legislation aimed at …
Most nations recently agreed to hold global average temperature rise to well below 2 °C. We examine how much climate mitigation nature can contribute to this goal with a comprehensive analysis of “natural climate solutions” (NCS): 20 conservation, restoration, and/or improved land management actions that increase carbon storage and/or avoid …
Nature can provide cost-effective and permanent solutions to check climate change, so much so that it can reduce over a third (37%) of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a new study by scientists from global conservation organisation, The Nature Conservancy and 15 other institutions, has concluded. As per the study, …
OSLO (Reuters) - Norway will study ways to make its economy greener and reduce dependence on oil and gas reserves that are likely to lose value amid efforts to slow climate change, Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen said on Thursday. A government commission of experts, to be appointed in coming days, …
In Africa, the African Union is committed to addressing climate change issues with a gender perspective. Consequently, African countries have formulated their respective climate change policies, strategies and action plans as well as green growth and low carbon strategies aimed at integrating climate change considerations into development and sectoral plans …
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department this week will try again to delay parts of an Obama-era rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, a rule Congress upheld earlier in the year, a document showed on Wednesday. The rule, finalized by the Interior …
Carbon price policies deliver cost-efficient mitigation across sectors, but can result in tradeoffs with food security and other sustainable development goals. Scenarios for a 1.5 °C world based on carbon prices could increase the undernourished population by 80 - 300 million in 2050. Applying a uniform carbon price across geographic …
Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration on agricultural land decreases the costs of climate change mitigation while promoting increased food security. SOC has the potential to sequester up to 3.5 GtCO2eq/yr by 2050 in a scenario consistent with 1.5 ºC warming. In total, the SOC sequestration potential in 2050 could offset …
educing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is training governments in developing countries, including Nigeria, to implement REDD+. To protect local people, UN-REDD has developed …
Indonesia is one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG). For the past two decades, GHG emissions have increased from almost all sectors, such as land-use (defined as land use, land-use change, and forestry including peat fires), energy, agriculture, industry, and waste. Currently, the land-use and energy sector …
