With the annual intersessional UN climate talk taking place online, and mired with technical difficulties, delegates are eager to get back to in person meetings. However, in three weeks of virtual discussions, little headway was made leaving all decision making to the COP26 in Glasgow.
The “intersessional” meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “subsidiary bodies” (SBs) is usually held in Bonn, Germany. However, this year delegates gathered online in a three week marathon of climate talks (one week more than usual) between 31 May and 17 June, so that Parties could make progress on the high volume of work accumulated in the absence of sessions throughout 2020. This was the first time that all Parties have met since COP25, held in Madrid, Spain, in 2019.
“I sincerely thank all delegates for their full and effective virtual engagement. Despite the significant…
Policy is the key to contrasting the worst effects of climate change. Analysing the impact of climate laws implemented by the G7 nations on their overall emissions gives a clear indication of how important policy measures are in the fight against climate change.
“The new climate war is a war not of our own choosing but one where powerful vested interests have been curtailing our ability and that of our policymakers to address the climate crisis in an effective way,” states Michael E. Mann, who firmly believes that climate policy is the key to addressing climate change and enacting significant change.
With 70% of all global CO2 emissions coming from just one hundred companies Mann posits that personal choices aimed at reducing our environmental footprint, although important, cannot act as a substitute for policy actions.
Climate policy provides the incentives and disincentives necessary…
Climate change is exacerbating problems such as habitat loss and extreme temperature fluctuations. With one in four species currently under threat of extinction, understanding which ones are better equipped to adapt, and hence survive, can provide valuable information for conservation efforts and policy choices.
Human activities “threaten more species now than ever before”. The 2019 IPBES report raised alarm bells around the world when it indicated that around 25% of species in plant and animal groups are vulnerable. This amounts to approximately one million species “already facing extinction, many within decades unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiversity loss”.
To address this unfolding crisis researchers are studying how animals and their habitats adapt to climate change and changes in land use. Adaptation is being studied both with regards to species distributions and evolutionary changes under a range of future…
A 100% resilient Europe by mid-century with more data and knowledge at the service of decision-makers. The EU aims to lead the world by example and calls for more consideration of the transboundary effects of climate impacts and for a “smarter, more systemic and swifter” adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
Climate-neutral and fully adapted to climate change by 2050. This is the (not so distant) future outlined for Europe in their new adaptation strategy. With 30 years left to enact this process, it is no longer just an ambition: with “deals”, strategies, and laws, the EU policy context is moving rapidly to make change a reality just as civil society is demanding action and the private sector is stepping up its game.
On the policy side, the latest step forward is the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, adopted by the European Commission on February 24, 2021. It…
Glaciers account for approximately 70% of all freshwater stored on the planet. From Latin America to the Himalayas, New Zealand and the European Alps, climate change is causing most glaciers to retreat at unprecedented rates with many experts sounding the alarm on water security.
From early childhood we learn that around 70% of planet Earth is made up of water. This amounts to around 1,390 billion km3 of which 97.5% is the saltwater contained in our seas and oceans. Only around 2.5% of Earth’s water is freshwater which is the essential building blocks for life as we know it.
The majority of freshwater is stored in the polar ice caps and glaciers. In fact, humanity only has direct access to around 0.5% of the planet’s fresh water, of which only a part is clean and safe for drinking.
Water security is essential to sustainable…
Natural resources are neither free nor boundless. The time has come to challenge our conception of the relationship between the economy, society, and the environment and how we measure well-being and social progress. A new system takes the contributions of nature into account when analyzing economic development. It can be a game-changer for decision making processes.
Conservationists and environment officials hope new UN standards that also account for the value of natural capital can help governments slow the rapid decline of plant and animal species worldwide.
The UN has adopted a new system that takes the contributions of nature into account when analysing economic development. …
Women are more exposed to the effects of climate change and at the same time less represented in climate negotiations and national environmental ministries. Working towards gender equality can also lead to more effective environmental decision making and action, accelerating global efforts to achieve development goals.
Not only is gender equality a fundamental human right but it is also a pillar of creating a sustainable global system. Enshrined in the UN’s SDG 5 — Gender Equality — is a recognition that investing in environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with achieving global goals related to gender equality and vice-versa.
Overall, climate change has a greater impact on those members of society that are the most vulnerable and poor. …
Improvements in climate science have a transformational effect on our understanding of environmental criticalities and what it will take to address them. The annual report on new insights in climate science reveals that although climate change indicators are accelerating there is also increasing popular and political momentum for change. 2021 will be a shed water moment if we are to meet the Paris Agreement objectives.
By consulting researchers and digging into fields related to climate change Future Earth, The Earth League and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) — a network of scientists, researchers and institutions that collaborate to address some of the planet’s most pressing issues — put together the 10 new insights in climate science for 2020 with the participation of 57 leading researchers from 21 countries.
Presented on 27 January 2021 to Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, the authors shed light on some of 2020’s most important findings regarding climate science. …
An anthology of essays, poems and illustrations. Against the backdrop of the UN reminding us that women continue to be excluded from participating fully in science, we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with “All We Can Save”, a collection of voices of women across generations, races, geography, and backgrounds.
“The climate crisis is not gender neutral” claim Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, two women and climate leaders who know about science and care for the future of the planet.
UNDP’s “Peoples’ Climate Vote” asked 1.2 million people in 50 countries, many of them young, whether they think climate change is a global emergency, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and if they support wide-ranging action. Sixty-four per cent of participants agreed and the countries with the highest level of awareness of the climate emergency were Italy and the UK, the hosts of the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP26).
There is an overwhelming belief that climate change is a global emergency. This is the conclusion reached by The Peoples’ Climate Vote, the largest survey ever taken of public opinion on climate change recently published by the United Nations Development Programme — UNDP.
“This is an unprecedented moment: even during a COVID-19 pandemic two-thirds of people around the world are seeing climate change as an emergency that must be addressed”, commented Cassie Flynn, the UNDP’s strategic adviser on climate change while illustrating the results of the survey. “The poll cuts across 50 countries in 17 languages. It has a…
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Euro-Mediterranean Center on #ClimateChange: integrated, multi-disciplinary and frontier research on climate science and policy.
