To support Africa's towards better preparedness for COP21, this year's conference theme is "Africa, climate change and sustainable development: what is at stake at Paris and beyond?". The event will be convened at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from 28-30 October 2015.
Given the pressing need to strongly defend the right to land as a human right, a "Monitoring Tool based on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests" has been introduced.
REDD+, a global framework designed to reward governments for preserving forests, has pledged nearly $10 billion to developing countries. But minorities, indigenous people, the poor, and other marginalized groups that live in forest areas often end up paying more than their fair share of the costs of environmental cleanup and conservation while getting less in return. What can be done to change this?
Asia has a unique opportunity to fight climate change and lift many more people out of poverty if it invests more in the communities living in its forests, experts said.
The “World Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation” will focus on “innovative approaches to implement climate change adaptation”, and will contribute to the further development of this fast-growing field.
The Latin America and Caribbean region is particularly vulnerable to some of the most challenging aspects of climate change – sea-level rise affecting coastal cities, changes in precipitation impacting agriculture, glacial melting threatening water reserves. Population trends – like migration and urbanization – can exacerbate these challenges or, in some cases, serve as methods of adaptation.
Conflicts are an integral component of social processes. When dealt with peacefully, they can promote positive change. However, if they develop violently, they threaten the security and welfare of people. An outbreak of violent conflict prevents development and poverty reduction.
Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate: according to the World Resources Institute, 46% of the world's old growth forests have been destroyed. Competition for forest resources triggers, exacerbates, or finances numerous crises and conflicts in tropical developing countries.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) published today a series of interactive maps, illustrating various climate threats European cities face as well as cities’ capacity to respond to these threats.
The G7 Foreign Ministers can take a leading role in avoiding the increased weakening and even total collapse of states and societies threatened by fragility challenges. Resilience - understood as the existential ability of a nation or society to cope with major crises - has to become the compass for foreign policy.
This is one of the key recommendations of the recent report commissioned by interested G7 Foreign Ministries and authored by an international research consortium from Germany, France, Great Britain and the USA, led by think tank adelphi. These recommendations also fed into the final communiqué of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Lübeck on 14-15 April 2015.